


I go where the sound of thunder is

by bansheehime



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, F/M, Healing, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23509054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bansheehime/pseuds/bansheehime
Summary: There were two things which fascinated Luck Voltia in his short life. Fighting a strong opponent and Nova Goldin. He could perfectly explain why a battle brought him joy. But, when it came to Nova, it was always a little more complicated than just a simple 'I like to win.' Perhaps, there was more to it than just winning... Luck/OC no beta
Relationships: Luck Voltia/Original Character(s), Luck Voltia/Original Female Character(s), Luck Voltia/Reader
Comments: 87
Kudos: 90





	1. The pilot

**Here I am, starting yet another fic… I'll probably get killed by my readers at some point… However, ideas shouldn't simply stay in my head, should they?**

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**A little info about the story:  
Pairing: Luck/OC  
Timeline: Before the Black Clover begins – Luck and Magna's Knight Exam is our starting point  
Updates: slow, mostly prompted by the active readers and reviews  
Word count: 4k+ for each chapter  
Beta: none**

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**I'll be looking forward to any feedback you guys give :)**

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**Chapter 1: The pilot**

"No offers."

Her eyes, scrunched up closed in a silent prayer until that very second, opened slowly. The air she'd held in her lungs released in a quick rush. She looked up, up, up at the stoic captains sitting in their high chairs, their companions behind them. They were all looking down at her, like some kind of high judges in a trial.

No offers, her brain told her. Get out of there. But, she couldn't feel her legs. There was shouting behind her, murmuring, telling her to get out of the way. Maybe it had been too early. She'd just received her grimoire, after all. They'd told her not to rush. Her parents had warned her. Her friends had told her. If you want to become a Knight you need to train properly. You need to be able to fight. Yet, she couldn't. She wasn't the conflict type, simply put. She was the resolving type. Sure, she could hold her own, but against others from her village. When she'd faced against that noble, she hadn't had a chance.

It was over. The young girl took a breath, then nodded to herself, and to the captains sitting above her. She spared them one more glance, taking in their stoic faces.

"Alright," she said to herself, nodding once more. "Alright." The girl clenched her fists at her sides, taking in a calming breath and then turning to leave. "To hell with it," she whipped around, hair billowing like a cloak. Her hand shot up, finger pointing at the centermost captain, the one from the Golden Dawn. "You'll all regret this when I become the best doctor in the kingdom! I'll show you 'no offers' my arse!" Laughter rang out from the other examinees behind her, the colleagues behind the captains moved for their grimoires, ready to retaliate if she chose to attack, but all the girl did was lower her arm, spin on her heel, and walk out of the arena with her head held high.

She walked down the street, breathing hard from the adrenaline rush. Had she done something wrong? Not really. The broom test she was certain she'd passed. She had great control of her magic, one of the best in her village, and judging by how the rest of the contenders had done, her flight had been among the steadiest overall. She hadn't been able to shoot magic into a wall. That might've been her downfall. Hitting multiple moving targets had also been a problem. Her magic wasn't meant for that. She hadn't been able to do it. She had never been able to do it. Though, she'd made a splendid set of scalpels out of her magic, if she dared say so. That had definitely been a passing task. She couldn't have done any better there. The seed she'd grown, as well. It was a simple matter of pouring magic into a seed and making it a full-fledged plant. She'd grown a proper flower from it. So, had it been the duel that had done her in? She'd been a fool to accept that noble's challenge, after all. He'd blasted her into a wall before she could even pull out her grimoire to fight back.

The girl shook her head and then stopped, in the middle of the street. Where was the water coming from? She looked up, the clear, sunny skies of the Clover Kingdom greeting her, as if ironically. They were sneering down at her, cheery in face of her disappointment and disgrace. Her hand rose to her cheek, feeling the steady stream of water. It wasn't rain, it was just her. She was raining. She was crying. Finally, the girl gave in to the urge she'd held in since the results of the exam had been announced. She let herself sob and cry loudly, wiping furiously at her eyes to remove all the damned _water_. She could almost feel the stares from the onlookers, digging into her skin uncomfortably.

It took her a moment to compose herself. Well, that was a lie. It took her more than a few moments to get her crying under control. But, once the tears stopped, they stopped for real. She took a breath, leaning against the wall of the alley she'd moved to in order to cry away from prying eyes. The thoughts about the exam wouldn't leave her head. What she could've done better. How she could've passed if she'd nailed a few more tests. Maybe if she'd been rude and rejected the noble's challenge she might've passed. She couldn't help but think about all of those things, no matter how desperately she was trying to push those thoughts away into the back of her mind.

"What's done is done," the young girl told herself, nodding, her cheeks tear-stained and nose still runny. She knew that her eyes were red, they always got red when she cried, and she was certain that her pale face had dark red splotches all over it, as it always did when she got upset. If there was one thing she was glad about, it was how she'd managed to yell at the captains without losing her composure, as mortifying as the desperate shouting seemed to her at that moment, after she'd calmed down a bit. There was always next year. But, she needed to make sure she felt good and chipper before she went home. So, the girl decided to do the reasonable thing – head out to the Black Market and check out some of the useful magic items there.

Digging into the pouch around her waist, the teen found what she was looking for, a small brown bag containing her life savings. It wasn't a lot, but she was allowed to splurge a bit in order to make herself feel better. Besides, she'd been meaning to check out the assortment of goods on the infamous Market whether she passed the exam or not. She dug around the light coin bag in her pouch, pulling out a piece of paper. Zipping up the pouch, she brought the crumpled page in front of her and unfolded it.

It was a ripped paper from one of her novels, which had provided her with all the knowledge about the city. On it was a map to the Black Market, the treasure trove of all magic items, both legal and illegal. She was sure to get chewed out by the village librarian, Charles, when she came home to return the page, but she didn't care much. He was always yelling at her for being overdue on medical books anyways, this would be their usual routine, perhaps with a bit more yelling. Besides, with his Paper Magic, he could put the page back where it belonged without much effort, as well.

Finding the portal in the wall hadn't been easy. The directions weren't too clear on the map, and the wall in question didn't stay in one place, protecting the location of the Black Market. But, she managed to find it in less than two hours, and indeed, it truly was a treasure trove. She stood at the entrance of the buzzing market for a second, looking around in awe. Unlike the rest of the city, which was filled with sunshine and smiles, the Black Market was dimly lit, in narrow passages filled with multiple stalls of clearly questionable goods and it exuded some kind of mysterious air. There was thick magic in the air, which made breathing kind of difficult, yet also easy. It was an odd mixture of things and caused a weird vortex of feelings to well up inside of her. Though, excitement prevailed.

"Get your wands here!"

"Care for a palm reading, young miss?"

"This necklace will amplify your magic!"

"Gather, gather, and behold the marvel of the magic suppressing fruit!"

All thoughts of the previously failed exam faded in her mind as she walked through the narrow streets, stopping ever so often in order to take a closer look at specific items. There were wands that could contain and focus your magic, which she briefly considered purchasing. If the exam next year would be shooting a target, as well, she could ace it with an item like that. Though, were magical items allowed during the exam? She hadn't seen a single person using one. Then, if that was the case, it would have to be something more inconspicuous than a wand.

Her eyes briefly darted to the old lady in a corner, who was offering to read a person's fortune. That kind of magic had never really appealed to her. After all, her mother was the village's quack fortune teller. She was infamous in the region for giving one single accurate prediction ages ago, before she'd even been born. Something about the current Wizard King, back then the captain of the Azure Deers. But, one accurate prediction didn't make a prophecy. Her mother was nothing but a fraud with a deck of cards. She couldn't even tell the weather for the next day. Yet, no matter the quacky nature of her parent, the girl loved her dearly. So, she opted to take a chance on the old, wrinkly lady in the corner and support her mother's profession in a sense.

"How much for a palm reading?" The girl asked, coming up to the low table the old lady sat behind. The glazed eyes took her in, as if measuring her monetary status.

"300 for a telling of your future and 80 for a telling of your fortune." The old lady's voice was crackly, as if someone was scratching their nails along a blackboard, like they had at the only school in the area, a few villages from her own.

"That's a rip-off if I've ever seen one, granny," the girl sighed, shaking her head. "I'll take both for 150 yul, but no more." The old lady blinked slowly, then laughed in a crackly voice.

"Let's settle for 200 for both and I'll take it," she told the girl.

"Deal," the girl grinned, sitting down. It was still expensive, but she could pay it. Besides, she was rather curious as to what the lady would tell her. Putting half of the money on the table, the girl extended her hand.

"Tell me your name, child," the old lady instructed.

"Nova Goldin, fifteen. I was born on the first of December."

"Oh, it's not the first time you've done this, is it?"

"My mother is a fortune teller," Nova told the old lady with a small smile as her bony fingers took the girl's hand in a surprisingly strong grip. "So, I'll be able to tell if you're pulling my leg."

"I wouldn't dare do so," the lady smiled, looking at the lines of Nova's palm. "Let's see then… You've been through your fair share of disappointments in the past. You've tried and failed in your ambition. The failure was recent. However, that is about to change. You are going to meet three men. One will be your path to glory. The second will be your path to knowledge. And, the third… the third will be your path to fulfillment."

Nova sat still, listening to the lady's words carefully. While these sentences seemed entirely too vague, they were also mostly spot-on. Truly, she'd had her fair share of hurdles that she'd had to overcome in the past. And, indeed, she'd had a recent failure. That very day, in fact. However, the future interested her. Three men, was it? She would have to keep an eye out on that.

"Do you want me to tell you more of your future? About your partner or children?" The old fortune-teller asked.

"No," the girl immediately declined. "Some parts of the future are meant to be enjoyed slowly," she smiled at the old lady. "Tell me about my ambition. Will I be able to fulfill my dreams?"

"Ah, you favor ambition over love, that's quite rare in this world." The fortune-teller mused.

"I don't favor it, per se," Nova mused slowly. "It's more like, I'd rather know if it's the time to push on or to give in to the tide? Love, it will come with time. Besides, I'd want to leave that part a mystery. It should be an adventure enjoyed in a timely fashion, shouldn't it?"

"That's also a preference," the lady laughed. "Well, if your success is the thing you wish to know about, you needn't worry. You simply need to allow things to happen. The three men you will meet will certainly be a turning point in your life. They aren't a forked road, either, but an intertwined one. Do not choose, but let your heart lead you. If you remain true to what you feel, you will surely achieve your ambitions." The lady patted her hand, giving it back to her. Nova reached into her pouch, taking out the remaining 100 yul and handing them over to the fortune teller.

"Thank you very much for your time, ma'am." With a small polite bow, the girl stood, her heart a tad lighter. The old lady waved to her as she left, but Nova's mind was already on another matter entirely. A man who would lead her to glory. A man who would lead her to knowledge. A man who would lead her to fulfillment. Somewhere in her future. Why did they all have to be men? She didn't know and she surely wasn't about to dwell on the old lady's reading. She'd heard from her mother how fortune-telling was mostly a suggestion. It led people to strive for what they were told they could or couldn't do. In the end, the future which they made for themselves depended on their actions. All that the reading would do was steer them in a specific direction, of their own making in the end.

"Take a look at this assortment of cursed tools, miss!" A seller yelled from Nova's left. She glanced that way, taking in the numerous items. "Come closer, take a look!" She politely shook her head, getting ready to go past the stall, when a specific item caught her view. She walked over, making a beeline for the cursed object. It was a scalpel, a ten blade by her estimate, with an inscription on the handle. "You have an eye for fine objects, miss! This is the infamous scalpel of the Surgeon of Death himself! The ten blade which he used to-"

"Curse his victims into submission." Nova finished for him. She looked up at the vendor, doing her best to keep her face from betraying her excitement. The Surgeon of Death, while a horrible mage with a terrifying reputation for his murder spree, was also one of the pioneers when it came to both general and cardiac surgery. He had left behind him so many detailed books on anatomy and the procedures which could be performed in order to both save and ruin a life. His only fault was, in Nova's opinion, that he'd used one too many curses during those surgeries to plant suggestions into his patients.

"A fine eye indeed and vast knowledge, miss! I'd be willing to let this blade go for a low price of a thousand yul!" The vendor told her. Nova scoffed.

"You praise my knowledge, only to insult it," she countered. "This blade can only be used for a specific type of surgery and only by certain mages. It's not nearly worth that much to me." It was worth even more. After all, she could use it herself. Yet, the vendor didn't know that. Even as a collector's item, it was worth at least a thousand yul. But, Nova didn't learn her haggling skills in vain.

"Alright, miss, let us negotiate," the vendor smirked, obviously eager to cheat her out of her money. "Give me a price, miss, let's talk." They were gathering a crowd. Obviously, haggling wasn't such a common occurrence at the Black Market.

"300 yul for the blade," Nova took a stab at a ridiculously low price, making the vendor scoff at her. "I'm from a small village, sir. I don't have unlimited funds."

"Come on, miss. Surely you can raise that a bit more?" He offered. "At least 700 yul!" It was Nova's turn to scoff theatrically.

"I don't have that much, sir! 250!" The vendor balked.

"Now, now, miss, bringing the price down even further gets us nowhere!"

"220?"

"500!"

"200?"

"450!"

"200."

"350!" The vendor made the vital mistake, his hand rising to cover his mouth as soon as he realized he'd gone down too much on the price.

"Sold!" Nova shouted excitedly. "Marked and sold!" The crowd around her clapped as the vendor attempted to back out of his offer. Yet, it had been a marked price, and Nova had agreed to it. She took out the money, handing it to the sulking man. Then, carefully, she took out a surgical glove from her pouch and picked up the blade. She could feel the magic radiating from the object in her hand. Nova wrapped it in a handkerchief that used to hold her loaf of bread, and then placed it into her pouch. "Thank you very much, sir." The girl grinned at the vendor.

"Robbed me blind, miss, robbed me blind." The vendor laughed, shooing her away. Nova chuckled, waving and walking onwards down the market. Her coin purse was much lighter, but she didn't regret her purchases. Both the fortune-telling and the scalpel had been nice additions to her collection of knowledge and items.

That was when the screaming happened. Nova stopped short in her tracks, turning around to see the source of the commotion. A man was on the floor, writhing in pain, holding his chest. Along with the other customers and vendors, Nova walked towards the scene on the ground, watching as the onlookers commented about the situation.

"I told him not to touch the item!" The young girl who was the vendor of the stall in front of which the scene was unfolding looked ready to cry. "It's a cursed collector's item! Merely touching it activates the spell!" Nova glanced from one onlooker to the other, seeing them only comment on the situation and not attempt to help at all.

"Damn it all!" Nova cursed under her breath, pushing through the crowd and dropping to her knees next to the writhing man.

"Don't touch him, miss, the curse might be able to spread!" one of the onlookers told her in a worried tone.

"I'm more worried about his state than that possibility," Nova countered, lowering her ear to the man's chest. There was no heartbeat. The man had stopped writhing. Nova felt her mind go blank and the sounds around her vanish completely. The panicking crowd seemed to be a thing of the past. In her consciousness, there was only the still heart in front of her. That was when her knowledge kicked in. It flowed through her, moving her limbs on instinct alone, without a pause, in complete and utter silence.

The curse had delivered blunt trauma like effects on the heart, causing it to stop. The only way to go was with an emergency thoracotomy. Her hands flew in a blur of motions, reaching for her tools from the pouch. Without another thought in her head, the girl cut apart the shirt which the man was wearing, then applied a quick disinfection spell on the area, her grimoire leaving the pocket at the front of her shirt. It rose, open in the air next to her, as the girl began manually cracking the man's chest. She quickly went through the stages described in her book, properly cutting the sternum with the Gigli saw, then exposing the chest cavity. Next, she lifted the pericardium and reached her intended destination, the clots. She quickly tossed them out with both hands, careful not to damage anything. Nova spotted the source of the bleed and grabbed the supplies from her kit, quickly sewing the wound shut. Yet, the heart didn't beat. She reached in, giving the heart a manual massage in an attempt to restart it. Soon, there was a small tremor along her hand and the organ began beating again. That was when the man began waking up, resuming his writhing on the ground.

"Someone knock him out!" Nova yelled, and immediately one of the onlookers stepped forward, using a spell to knock out the man on the floor. The girl removed her hands from the open chest, taking a deep breath as all the sounds returned around her. There was a shellshocked member of the Green Mantis standing next to her, looking slightly out of breath. "You!" Nova addressed him. "Do you know any healing spells?"

"A-ah, yes, they called me over to help." The knight seemed to snap out of his shock and knelt down, his grimoire floating as he performed his healing magic, the chest slowly closing over the beating heart and the damage from the emergency surgery repairing itself. Nova felt the adrenaline leaving her system, her limbs beginning to shake with the aftereffects, and the girl allowed herself to fall back on the ground, her hands going behind to her body to prop her up. Indeed, surgery was the best high of all, Nova sighed to herself.

"That was some splendid first-aid there, miss!" one of the onlookers commented, coming over to her as the crowd began to disperse. Nova looked up, taking in the man. He was in his forties, with rather unassuming and unmemorable features. His hair was messy, falling around his angular face in curls and his eyes were a dull brown. By his clothing, she guessed him to be from the Common Realm. The old lady's prediction briefly crossed her mind, but Nova brushed it off.

"Thanks," she said, standing up. The girl cast an easy spell which removed her surgical gloves, cleaned her instruments and repacked them. Then, she closed her pouch and returned her grimoire into the binds which held it against her breast.

"Say, would you tell me a bit more about your magic?" The man was following her, falling into step with her. "I'd treat you to a drink, of course!" Nova frowned, looking over at the unassuming man.

"No thanks, you're really not my type, mister." The man balked at that, but didn't give up.

"I'm not hitting on you, I promise! I'm just curious about how you did what you did," he promised, raising his hands as if in surrender. Nova stopped in her tracks, making the man halt, as well, and took him in from head to toe. She deduced, if it came down to it, she could take him in a fight.

"Alright," the girl agreed.

"I know a place with great coffee and teas nearby, if that's alright with you?" the man told her, this time him leading their walk. Nova nodded. "I'm Elian, by the way, what about you?"

"Nova," she offered her name.

"That's a pretty name!" The man seemed a bit too eager for her liking. "So, why are you in Kikka? For the Knight's Exam? You seem pretty young to be travelling alone." Nova wondered why in the world she'd decided to entertain the man. Perhaps, it had been the old lady's prediction. On the other hand, maybe the open and rather honest excitement about her magic had been the deciding factor. All in all, she was in it now.

"I never said I was alone," Nova shrugged. "Besides, I agreed to tell you about my magic, not indulge my whole life story." Elian laughed.

"Not very trusting with strangers, are you?" He seemed to take her comment in stride. "Well then, let me offer some information about myself and maybe I'll no longer be a stranger?" Nova shrugged, but that didn't deter the chipper man either. "I'm here on business, you could say. I work at the Royal Capital in business, mostly paperwork. But, I have to admit that I love learning about different odd magic that people possess. Yours is particularly interesting! Gosh, am I glad I took the time to be here on business today!"

Nova didn't reply, but it seemed that Elian didn't need a conversation partner. He kept talking about the business he worked in, some kind of accounting and task management which was beyond her understanding, and the odd magic he'd encountered on his travels through the years, all the way to the local café. And, if the girl was being honest, she didn't mind his loudness or openness one bit. In fact, she quite enjoyed it.

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**That's all folks! Let me know what you think and I'll do my best to update soon :)**


	2. The Healing Tower

**As promised, I'm shamelessly fueled by feedback.**

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**Thank you very much TowerofBabel form AO3 for being my first review! Also, my first review was also criticism, so, I wanted to raise this question with everyone:**

**How long do you like your fic chapters to be?**

**Feel free to shoot me a comment or vote on my FFN page, as there is a poll on my profile. I'll take your votes into account when I write :D**

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**Without further ado, I present to you,**

**Chapter 2: The Healing Tower**

"Number #459, go ahead inside," the man at the window told her, registering her grimoire and showing her towards the tall doors to the left of the window through which he was working. Nova thanked him politely and then headed the way he'd shown her. She almost bumped into another one of the contestants, but managed to avoid him.

"My bad," the girl apologized, not paying him much mind, before entering through the large doors. She didn't notice the curious blue eyes which followed her every move as she took in the space. Nor did she spot the way the boy shrugged, his smile turning to another one of the contestants, as if dismissing her completely. But, Nova was more focused on the space itself than the other examinees. Perhaps, she should've paid more attention to the boy she'd almost bumped into. After all, he was the one who has emerged among the best candidates of the exam, gaining an unfortunate nickname The Cheery Berserker, which also turned quite a few squads away from him. He's ended up as a rather strong addition to the Black Bulls. And, he, the battle-loving-almost-sociopath Luck Voltia, had rightfully judged her as not worth starting a fight with.

"I mean, it's unfair, right?" Nova whined, all her previous caution about the man in front of her thrown to the wind. Elian had proven to be quite the listener and a rather nice conversation partner. Somehow, despite Nova's reservations about talking to him of her failure in the Knight's Exam, he'd ended up leading her into venting her frustration. "It's just stupid to rate only the worth of examinees in battle, no? You also need a good healer on the field, no?"

"Well…" Elian began to answer her, but Nova interrupted him again.

"They'll regret it, I swear," the girl took another sip of her summer wine, an obvious reason for her loose tongue. "I'm going to become the best surgeon Clover Kingdom has ever seen and I'll make every single one of those stuck up captains regret that they didn't take a chance on a magic type you can't use in battle!"

"That's the spirit!" Elian encouraged with a hearty laugh. They'd ended up choosing a small café, a real hole in the wall, away from the main streets, where they'd sat down and started talking. First, Nova had indulged him and explained a bit about her magic. She used a mixture of Creation Magic and Healing Magic, together calling it Operation Magic. It allowed her to create a space she called Operation Room, or OR for short, in which she controlled the body of her patient at will. Her tools were mostly actual physical ones, since creating them drained her mana too much. Yet, she did create additional scalpels or saws in order to help her work, and she did use spells for disinfection or pinpointing the internal injuries. Elian had been all too eager to hear everything about the odd mixture of techniques that weren't commonly mixed in the field of Healing Magic.

But, along the way of discussing magical possibilities, training Nova could do in order to improve and possible applications in battle, the two had become comfortable with each other. When Nova had mentioned how she'd failed the Exam, Elian had decided to treat her to a celebratory drink of summer wine, under his careful supervision, in hopes of future success. That had only loosened her tongue more. Even the man himself wasn't sure he'd wanted that much information about the other candidates the girl had noticed nor about her personal life. Yet, he didn't discourage her from oversharing.

"Do you think I would be a good Magic Knight?" Nova asked, peering up at him from her spot where she lay almost sprawled across the table, her arms spread out and cheek on the dark wooden surface. "I mean, do I have what it takes?" Elian paused at that, one hand coming up to stroke his beardless chin.

"I'd say, by what I've seen of Knights, that you would do well in any of the squads," he answered honestly. "Perhaps the captains have become too focused on pure battle prowess in the recent years, forgoing potential over already present fighting abilities. Then again, maybe there is a better place for you."

"What do you mean?" Nova asked, eyes rising to meet his dark ones.

"If you'd indulge an old man," Elian smiled, taking out a piece of paper and a pen. "There is a job opening of an apprentice to a rather well-positioned healer at the Royal Capital. If you go to this address at the Capital in a month and introduce yourself, you could find your place in supporting this kingdom without joining the Knights." He slid the paper across the table to the girl. She took it, trying desperately to make out the curvy letters that appeared rather blurred on the page to her.

"That's very generous, Elian, but I don't think you have enough pull to get me in there, wherever there is," Nova shrugged, placing the paper down. "I mean, unless you're going to come out and say that you've got some kind of pull with the Wizard King or something!" Nova laughed at the idea, shaking her head.

"Well, you consider it, you have a month," Elian took out a few coins and placed them on the table, paying the tab. "I don't think you're fit for traveling in your state, there's a room that you can rent here for the night. Consider my offer, though." He stood slowly, looking down at the slightly less miserable girl than a few hours before, when he'd first met her at the Black Market. "It's been really nice chatting with you, but I'm afraid I've got some more business to take care of in the city."

"Thank you for listening, Elian," Nova said from her spot, her voice becoming small. "I didn't know how much I needed that." Elian smiled down at her, reaching over and ruffling her messy black hair.

"It's no problem, kid," he grinned. "Let's see each other again at the Capital in a month."

"Sure," Nova waved at him as he left her alone in the small café. Soon, the waiter came over, taking the money from the table and then turning to the girl.

"Miss, there is a bit too much here for the tab," he told her. Nova sat up, looking at the man with a frown.

"A tip?"

"Still too much, miss,"

"Then, can I rent the room above for a night, as well?" Nova asked, thinking back to what Elian had told her.

"Oh, that makes sense," the waiter nodded. "Of course, let me know when you're ready and I'll take you upstairs." And he left her alone to nurse what was left of her summer wine. Nova looked at the cup which Elian had ordered, half-empty on his side of the table. It contained chamomile tea.

"Thanks, Elian." She whispered to herself, before downing the rest of the wine and standing up. The girl grabbed the piece of paper from the table with the address and walked towards the cash register to seek out her waiter. "Could you show me to the room now, please?"

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Returning home took Nova five days in total. She traveled light, with only her pouches and a single bag of necessities. She didn't have a change of clothes. It wasn't that she couldn't afford them, but that she hadn't brought one with her. The girl had left home much in the same fashion as she'd left Kikka, with only the clothes on her back, supplies in her pouches and a single bag which she'd gotten along with her food at the local market.

The trip was, much like the one to Kikka, rather uneventful. Nova took measured breaks at well-known rest stops for travelers, camping in already prepared spots and leaving as soon as she was done having her breakfast in the morning. She gathered fruits along the way and mostly finished them off before the next stop. By the time she reached her hometown, a small village called Tateni, she looked as if she'd been on the road for longer than five days. Her hair was a mess and she was a bit thinner than when she'd left her parents' home earlier that month. The whole adventure, now behind her, had taken a mere span of twelve days. Less than two weeks, and yet it felt like a whole month had passed.

"Back already, little Nova?" Their neighbor, Marcus, greeted her with a smile from his field of corn. "Since you're back, you didn't get into the Knights, did you? You know there's always a spot on my harvesting team for you, girlie!"

"Thanks, Marcus!" Nova politely waved and smiled, trying her best not to show how much the comment affected her. She'd dreaded coming home. It wasn't that her village was full of mean people or anything. It was just that they had simply never believed her able to become a Magic Knight. And, their doubts had proven true. She was no good. She hadn't managed to reach the first step of her dream. She'd failed.

"Nova, back already?" Estelle Goldin stood at the door of their home, a basket of laundry in her arms. She was a fairly slim woman, short in stature and of pale hair and skin. Her eyes were the most prominent part of her features. They were large and bright green, just like Nova's. She'd inherited that from her mother, just like was normal for her family. Almost every woman of her mother's line had those stunning green eyes.

"I'm home, mama." Nova broke into a run, a wide smile on her face. Estelle's basket dropped to the ground, the laundry spilling over the earth, wetting it, but neither of the two women cared for that much at the moment. Instead, the young girl threw herself into her mother's arms, welcoming the scent of cinnamon and green tea, accompanied by the vanilla smell of the candles she used for her fortune-telling sessions. "I'm home."

"Welcome home, sweetie." Estelle didn't ask why Nova was back. She knew that her daughter coming back could only mean one thing – she hadn't passed the Exam. Instead, all Estelle did was hold her offspring as tightly as she could, welcoming her back into familiarity. And, for the second time after the results of the Exam had been announced, Nova cried.

* * *

"So, you're going to go?" Estelle asked her daughter as they re-washed the laundry together by the local stream.

"Mhm," Nova nodded. "While I'm not so sure Elian has enough pull to get me such a prestigious position, I'm not going to give up. I want to do this. I want to do good for the kingdom. The kind of healing we're still missing… I'll bring it to the Capital."

"I've done good, haven't I?" Estelle laughed, a hand coming up to cover her mouth delicately. "Look at you chasing your dreams relentlessly! I can't wait to tell papa." Nova blushed, returning to furiously scrubbing the stained shirt under her hands. "Ah, Nova, you're going to rip it!"

"I'm not!"

* * *

Weeks seemed to pass so quickly, despite the teasing words coming from numerous villagers. They all wanted to know how the Exam was and why exactly did she fail it. But, other than that, they also wanted to offer the young girl a place in their business and reassure her that she doesn't need to become a Magic Knight in order to be useful. Nova knew they meant well. That was partially what strengthened her resolve to leave the comforts of her home once more.

"Take care!" Estelle yelled after Nova's form at the back of the cart full of goods for sale.

"Make sure you eat well!" Marcus yelled as well, giving large waves from his spot next to Nova's mother and father.

"Don't take any shit!" Mavra Goldin, Nova's father screamed out, cupping his mouth to make sure the sound carried. Instantly, Estelle slapped his shoulder in reprimand for his language. Mavra wasn't like all the other villages. After all, he was tall, dark-haired and had sun-kissed skin. He was from the very border of the Heart Kingdom, his parents being from the other country. Yet, he'd fallen in love with Estelle and followed her to her small village in order to make her happy.

"I'll write a lot!" Nova promised, waving back to her sendoff party. The cart's wheel jumped over a small hole in the road, making her bounce and all the various goods clink and clank against each other behind her.

"That's quite a sendoff you've got there, little Nova," the cart driver, the traveling merchant who'd taken up residence in her village the year before last commented with a smile. His name was Oliver and he was always popular among the people in the settlement, especially children. They always crowded him and were eager to hear of his many travels. Nova could remember how she'd listened to the old man's stories when she was young, too. After all, he was the one who'd told her that her magic, just simple Creation Magic, could be so much more. He was the one who'd told her to seek out more books about the different applications of creation at the local library.

"I'm going to miss them so much," Nova admitted.

"That's good," Oliver chuckled. "I always miss Tateni when I'm on the road. It's one of the reasons why I settled there."

"Really?" Nova asked, turning to see the old man's back. And, as usual, Oliver launched into one of his tales of numerous travels and adventures.

Days passed quickly on the back of Oliver's cart for Nova. He was a fun conversationalist, seemingly never running out of stories to tell. They stopped in different towns along the way, making their trip longer than a week which it would usually take to reach the Royal Capital. Though, Nova didn't mind. Resting in different towns and helping Oliver with his sales was always fun, and she enjoyed it tremendously. She even got a chance to practice some of her magic and healing methods in the last town, Hakki, when there was an accident involving a misplaced saw and a leg. She'd been able to return full function to the limb within a few hours of work.

The odd duo reached the Royal Capital in the morning of the tenth day of their trip. Oliver woke Nova up just as they were nearing the entrance, where they had to show their traveling papers in order to enter. Nova presented her identification, a small card containing her name and basic information, and the guard checked her thoroughly before he allowed the cart to pass the gates.

"I'm going to be here for three days, if you need me," Oliver told the girl as he stopped the cart in front of the inn where he usually lodged during his trips to the capital. "Make sure to let me know how your quest goes."

"Will do," Nova offered Oliver the money for the trip which he pushed back to her.

"No, no," the old man said. "I couldn't possibly."

"No, Oliver, I insist."

"Well, let's agree that you can treat me to a drink if all goes well with your employment." The old man was adamant about not taking her fare.

"Alright, I can live with that," Nova laughed, packing her money away into her pouch. Then, she gave the old man a tight hug and waved goodbye as she headed deeper into the city, towards the address Elian had given her a month ago. She found herself in front of a tall tower, right next to the castle where the Wizard King lived. It was an odd structure, both wide and quite high, leaving quite an impression on the girl. The main gates dwarfed her once she neared them. She took a breath to compose herself, clutching the paper in her hands before she knocked and waited. Soon, the massive gates opened, a man stepping out.

"Hello there," he greeted in a pleasant voice. He was middle-aged, a rather tall man of greying hair with glasses on his face and a kind smile. "Can I help you?" He asked in his deep voice.

"I-I'm Nova Goldin," the girl replied, blushing at her stammer. "I was told to come here by a man named Elian when I was in Kikka last month. He gave me this note to give when I arrived." And Nova handed over the paper from her hands. She wasn't sure what the man would see in the note. It merely held the directions to his tower and nothing else. Though, it was signed with a rather interesting symbol which she couldn't recognize.

"Oh, Nova Goldin! I heard that you'd be coming," the man smiled, briefly looking at the paper. "I'm Owen, the healer here. Come in, let's talk." With another deep breath to center herself, Nova followed the man into the tower. He led her up a series of steps, to the second floor, which made her legs hurt from the workout. "I wish I could tell you that you get used to the number of stairs, but you really don't." Owen laughed, putting the girl immediately at ease. "Would you like some tea or juice?"

"Juice is fine, thank you," Nova said, sitting down when Owen motioned for her to do so. The second floor of the tower was a circular space filled with everything one would need in a cozy living room. She settled on the cushioned, comfortable couch in front of a wide coffee table, following the healer with her eyes as he went to the small kitchenette and prepared their drinks.

"So, miss Nova, I was told that you have quite the unique talent for healing," Owen told her as he placed two drinks on the coffee table and sat down in a sofa chair.

"Nova is just fine, sir, please," the girl couldn't help blushing at his politeness. "I use Creation Magic coupled with Healing Magic to practice surgery." The man's eyes widened at that and he leaned in, looking her over curiously.

"Oh, now I see why he was so interested," the healer laughed. "You're quite the unique one, aren't you? So, tell me more about this surgery that you practice, Nova." There, she was in her element. Nova launched into an explanation of her medical practices and how she used it to help people.

* * *

The Healing Tower was a true marvel. It was a structure so bland from the outside, yet quite interesting from the inside. Just like a patient. The tower contained five floors, along with a deep basement. The first floor was the waiting area, which contained numerous beds and was staffed with aspiring healers. Owen had four people working under him, not including the new addition of Nova. Timothy, Mary, William, and Elizabeth were all commoners, from the Common and Forsaken Realm. So far, Nova had briefly met only two of them, William, who insisted he be called Will, and Mary. They had both passed their Magic Knights Exam, yet chosen to forego battle in order to become healers. These two people were the ones who managed the first floor of the tower. Decorated in pale yellow and fresh forest green, it was an area filled with hope of relief from ailments. It contained twenty beds and had various medical herbs, balms, and concoctions available in case of emergency. This is where the people who had wounds or illnesses were brought to first, before they got reassigned based on priority.

The second floor of the tower was a common area for the healers. While they all had their living quarters, they still spent most of their time there, devising different healing treatments, new procedures, while they dined and studied. It also contained an extensive library, which Nova had missed on her first visit to it. There was a kitchenette there, as well as a counter with available resources to prepare already existing balms and remedies and test new ones. This area was color-coded in plum and deep greens, along with various wooden furniture done in sturdy dark oak.

When one went to the third floor, they didn't immediately enter a large circular area as were the first and the second. This was a floor where the most urgent patients were taken to be treated in separate rooms. Each of the healers had their own space, which they had both stocked and color-coded according to their preferences. Nova had had the chance to peer only into Owen's room of preference, which was rather bland, aside from a single table with two chairs in dark oak, along with a bed where he positioned his patients before starting the healing process. He explained to her that she would receive her own space, free to decorate it as she wished, and that she could look into the other rooms for reference if needed.

The fourth floor contained the living quarters of the staff, as well as three separate bathrooms, to minimize the time they needed to get ready for work. Nova had been given the room across from Elizabeth's and in between Owen's and Will's. It was a rather small space, with only a bed, dresser and small desk for work, until she had the chance to decorate it. Though, she loved it. Mostly due to the fact that it had a large window overlooking the city, where she could sit in the old window seat. Though, it did need a few touch-ups in her opinion before it was ready for use.

The final floor of the tower was a herbal garden. The roof had been arranged to that it could open in spots, and every morning the staff would make certain to let in the sunshine so that the light-loving herbs could grow properly. Owen had explained to Nova how, since she was new, her most important task would be taking care of those plants and making certain they had everything they needed at all times. The four balconies which extended from the roof were also filled with herbs that didn't handle indoors well, along with tables and a single swing, which was, according to the head healer, the most popular among the staff.

Nova hadn't had the chance to see the basement, but she'd been told that it included various books which hadn't fit into the common area on the second floor, along with old instruments which weren't in use anymore and some magical items that old doctors had implemented in their healing. Altogether, the Healing Tower was a marvel in Nova's eyes. It was a treasure trove, and she would be living among its jewels.

"So, that concludes our tour," Owen smiled, stopping in the common area where they'd started their small walkthrough. "I understand that there's only one lever elevator, which often proves difficult, and that more than often you'll be in for a leg workout to the top. But, through the years, we've found that this is the most efficient organization."

"Oh, no, I'm just glad to be here," Nova bowed respectfully. "I'll work on the leg muscles, I promise." The head doctor laughed at that.

"You're in for a few breathless runs up and down the stairs, but you do get somewhat used to it," he smiled at the girl. "For now, I'd like to assign you a staff member as your mentor, and go from there. Lizzie should be back tomorrow, and then you two can get started on her patients. She will show you how we operate, and if you have any questions or suggestions, we're always open to innovation." Nova stood for a second, as if in a dream, when he was finished. Owen tilted his head, watching the girl carefully. "Is everything alright, Nova?"

"A-ah, yes," the girl stammered. "I'm just… I mean… This is so surreal. This is everything I've ever wanted to do. I just had no idea that a traveling businessman had so much pull." Nova turned to Owen to see him laugh nervously.

"Ah, well, that's because who you've met was the Wizard King himself, just on the road and in disguise." Her brain successfully short-circuited. In a flood, her babbling of the ignorant to her talent captains and the stupid system of the Magic Knights Exam came flooding back. Essentially, she'd called the most loyal subjects of the Wizard King fools to his face.

"T-the Wizard King…" And Nova promptly fainted.

* * *

**I know this chapter was a tad too description heavy, but I hope I didn't bore you guys. Let me know how you liked it! :D**


	3. Alien going on native

**Hello and welcome, I give you:**

**Chapter 3: Alien going on native**

* * *

"Incoming!" Mary yelled as she helped three more Magic Knights get settles into their beds. Will was running left and right, taking vitals, peeking carefully under bandages and ensuring that the highest priority patients be sent up the single elevator up to the third floor. Nova, on the other hand, had a chart in her arms and was watching the mess happen before her eyes, frozen against the wall.

"What happened?" Will asked, peeling a bandage carefully away from a knight's abdomen to peer at the laceration. But, blood squirted all over him, making the tall mage on the bed groan. The healer quickly slapped the makeshift triage back on, securing it once more. "Priority one!"

"We had a bit of a scuffle with Diamond intruders at the border," the tall man standing at the entrance, supporting a frail-looking pale woman interjected.

"Ouch," Mary commented, inspecting a broken leg on the table. "Priority three here. Who's next?"

"Eleonora has lost a lot of blood," the tall man spoke up again. Mary rushed over, pulling up a chair and helping the woman sit down.

"Do you know her blood type?" The man shook his head. "Alright, we need O neg here. Nova, snap out of it and _help us_!" Nova jumped a bit, then shook her head and finally managed to kick herself into action. She rushed for the coolers which held their blood supply.

* * *

Nova slid down the door of her room after closing it behind herself. She pulled her knees up to her chest and let herself breathe for a moment. Oliver had left the capital almost a week ago. He'd promised to take a letter she'd written back to her family when he reached their village at the end of his trip. Nova had hit it off with Will and Mary quite well. They'd accompanied her on a small shopping spree, getting what the girl needed for her room and the daily necessities for the adjoining bathroom. They'd even helped her begin paining her medical space a pale purple color, one of her favorite shades. Yet, Nova still felt like an alien in the Healing Tower.

While on a daily basis their cases mostly consisted of regular patients which were taken care of by the senior members of the healing staff, she hadn't been prepared for the quick inflow of Knights straight from the battlefield. She could still remember the tall leader of the squad, from the Green Mantis, finally succumbing to his wounds and falling to the ground, causing a flurry of motion. He'd been bleeding internally for hours without anyone noticing. His adrenaline had masked the symptoms well. While Will and Mary had quickly started working on him, patching up the most severe wounds with magic and plugging the rest before they took him to Owen upstairs, Nova had been frozen. The best thing she'd managed to do that day was hand bandages and provide blood where needed.

She'd known that she wouldn't become a healer in a second. She knew that her training had mostly been personal knowledge and learned from books. She needed more instructions and most importantly, experience. Yet, she had never expected to simply freeze up. Freezing up meant that people died. She should've noticed that the squad leader was most likely to be severely injured due to the way he was standing and the fact that he'd been doing the majority of the battling. Yet, she hadn't. She'd failed.

"Nova, are you in there?" Owen's voice asked from the other side of the door, a soft knock on the wooden surface. But, the girl didn't move or speak. "Will and Mary told me that you did well today. Good work, keep it up." And she heard the healer leave.

Well? How had she done well? All she'd done was freeze up and miss the most elementary of things. There was nothing good in her work that day. Not a single thing. Ignoring the fact that she smelled of sweat and probably had blood crusted in her hair, Nova stripped and pulled an oversized old shirt over her head, crawling into bed. She didn't feel like showering. She didn't feel like eating. In fact, she didn't feel like doing anything that day. Nova fell asleep crying into her pillow that night.

* * *

"Would you like some rice omelet?" Mary asked with a bright smile, turning around from the stove as Nova entered the common area, freshly showered, but still unable to get rid of the swollen red patches around her eyes.

"Sure," the girl replied, walking over. She didn't feel much better after a night of resting. "Can I help with anything?"

"Why don't you cut up those tomatoes and give us some salad to go with the omelet?" Mary instructed, smiling kindly, almost sympathetically. Mary was shorter than Nova and had a head of dark auburn hair. It was a bob cut, the strands going into her eyes pulled back by a green headband. Her eyes were dark, as well, a chocolatey brown color that seemed almost a honey hue when the light hit them just right. Though, unlike Nova's slim figure with little to no curves, Mary was rather plump in comparison, blessed in all the right places. She wore sundresses which showed off her figure well and typically had a white apron in the front, both for cooking and working with patients. Nova hadn't learned much about the young woman's magic, other than it was some kind of a mud attribute.

"Is that food?" Will walked into the common area in his pajamas, wandering over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a generous amount. He was weak in the mornings, as the newcomer had learned. He was also very different from anyone Nova had ever seen. With bright red hair in messy curls around his head, typically pulled back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck and pale blue eyes, he was a looker. His frame was slim and tall, towering over both girls. Though, the thing which Nova noticed the most were Will's arms and hands. Everything about him was lanky, and his fingers were long and worked quite fast. He used a type of healing Fire Magic, which lit up when he snapped his fingers. It was always quite endearing to watch him work.

"We're making some omelet," Mary grinned. "Will Owen be joining us? And Lizzie?"

"Still asleep, the both of them," Will commented, dozing off on the barstool he'd chosen for himself at the counter of the kitchenette. "I know Owen was up all night watching the Knights, but Lizzie has been holed up in her room for a while. I have no idea what she's doing."

"Probably new research," Mary shrugged. "Shall we eat?" Nova wordlessly helped them set up the meal, hopping onto a free barstool and munching on the delicious food Mary had made. "Nova, do you want to handle post-ops today?" The girl's head snapped up in response.

"Oh, I-I don't know if I-"

"Nonsense, just do your best," Will interjected with his deep baritone. "We'll be there to help out if you need anything." When Nova looked over, she saw the both of them smiling hopefully at her.

"O-okay," She conceded.

* * *

It was utter chaos. Apparently, during the night, another group of Magic Knights had arrived at the tower, all in various state of injury, which left the healers with an absolute mess that very morning. It turned out that sticking a group of Green Mantis and Black Bulls Knights together in the same room meant an ongoing competition war. They shouted at one another, challenged each other to fights and threw items and magic spells across the room without pardon. Nova felt like she'd walked into a proper zoo once she'd descended the stairs with all of their charts. She ended up standing in the doorway flabbergasted for more than a moment.

"Black Bull peasant scum!" one of the Green Mantis Knights shouted, the one with the broken leg and arm, his grimoire floating next to him as he hurled a water ball at the opposite side of the room, where the two members of the Black Bulls were sitting on their beds, looking rather unperturbed by the action. The one on the right, who seemed to be sporting some kind of a rough look countered it with a simple fire spell.

"Wanna take this outside, bug?" The boy smirked right back in a challenge.

"Damn straight!" The Green Mantis replied.

"Not fair, Magna! I was gonna fight him!" The other member of the Black Bulls was quite familiar to Nova for some reason. Blonde messy hair, blue eyes and that maniacal grin on his face. Indeed, something was _painfully_ familiar about him.

"Let's go, then!" And the Green Mantis knight started pushing himself up in the bed with one good arm and leg. "I can take you even with this handicap, just like my Captain can take yours anytime!"

"Oh, for Wizard King's sake!" Will appeared behind Nova, a frown on his face. "Sirs, please get back in your beds," he rushed over to the more injured Knight, pushing him back onto the mattress. "You're not well enough for this kind of-"

"You butt out, non-combatant!" The Green Mantis Knight yelled, fighting against the pushing.

"Fucking hell, Will," a new voice sounded from behind Nova. She turned to see a busty blonde bombshell standing there, her hands on her hips. One arm went up, the slender, pale fingers pushing her glasses up further on her nose, showing off the enchanting amber eyes. "Sedate them all if they won't cooperate. I can't work with all this racket."

"Oh, hey, Elizabeth," Will huffed, half-turned to look at the beautiful healer. "Owen said we shouldn't sedate them due to-"

"Then knock them out, or I will!" And the blonde left, the room briefly descending into silence at her appearance and disappearance. Then, chaos erupted once more, this time more members of the Green Mantis included.

* * *

"If you'll just let me," Nova started nervously, flipping through the chart in her arms, "inspect that wound. It shouldn't take too long." The blonde boy on the bed regarded her with an eerie smile which put her on edge. She felt like an unsuspecting rabbit being stalked by a clever fox.

"Sure!" Though, his tone of voice and cheery demeanor contrasted the menacing smile. As Nova placed down the chart and then carefully unwrapped his abdomen, the Black Bulls' Knight raised his arms helpfully, letting her inspect the deep laceration on his stomach which had been stitched together and treated with salves. "Say, you learn any battle magic yet?" The boy asked.

"Eh?" Nova stopped her hands from moving, for the first time really looking carefully at the Knight. Then, it all clicked. "You're from the exam!"

"Yep!" The boy grinned. "I remember you, too. Not much battle magic, but strong mana. So, did you learn any combat stuff?"

"Umm, combat really isn't my focus," Nova elaborated, resuming her work.

"Oh, I see," the boy looked disappointed, despite the smile on his face. "Too bad."

"Luck, who's that? Your girlfriend?" The other member of the Black Bulls wanted to know. Nova briefly looked up at him, but didn't comment. Instead, she focused on cleaning the wound, taking samples to test for infection and then re-applying the salve she'd prepared for it.

"Don't you remember her, Magna? She's from the Knights' Exam. She got no offers." The blonde boy was a menace, Nova decided then and there. With a sigh, the girl tuned out the two Knights exchanging comments about her previous failure, turning her back to the bed in order to enter the updates into the chart. Luck Voltia, it read on top. She dug through her brain for the information and recalled his name. The Cheery Berserker, Luck Voltia. He'd gone overboard in his one-on-one fight, Nova could remember that clearly. The lightning shimmering in the air, cracking as he wrapped it around his shoes in order to slam the opponent repeatedly into the floor. That maniacal grin on his face as he did it, as well.

"Ouch!" Nova jumped, whirling around. She directed a glare at the blonde boy on the bed, who kept cheerily smirking up at her. "Did you just zap my butt?"

"No?"

"Okay," Nova shook her head, returning to her chart. She was jotting down the blood pressure and the temperature of her patient when another shock went through her behind and legs. "For Wizard King's sake!" She whirled around again, only to be met with yet another clever smirk. "Oh, forget it!" And Nova stormed away from the bed, ignoring the snickering boys behind her.

* * *

"Alright, next up on our list is Mr. Maverick," Elizabeth said, flipping through the planner in her hands. "Can you give me the rundown of his chart?" The blonde bombshell turned to Nova, waiting, as they walked down the street together.

"Of course," Nova smiled. Finally, after days of being completely overwhelmed, she was in her element. Going door to door in the Capital and visiting regular patients had turned out to be much like what she was used to doing back at home. It consisted of making their usual remedies in the morning, then packing those up along with supplies to conduct exams on site and then following through the usual checklist. "Elias Maverick, thirty-eight, owns a grocery stand at the local market. He presents with a chronic asthmatic condition, which is worsened due to his work in the fields during the day. He has a check-up every three weeks and gets regular medication to manage his condition. Currently, we have him on a combination of inhalers and herbal remedies. His condition has shown improvement with the turmeric treatment."

"Good job, you've been reading," Elizabeth smiled at her. "Would you like to lead this exam?"

"Oh?" Nova brightened, jumping in her spot, the heavy bag over her shoulder jingling. "Would that be alright?"

"I think you're capable," the woman shrugged. "I don't see any reason why you can't handle a routine exam which you already know by heart on your own."

"There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to," Nova agreed with a small smile. She readjusted the strap of her bag, pieces finally falling into place. She felt, at last, like she had a place at the capital.

* * *

The scalpel had inscriptions on it. Nova flipped it over in her hands once more, feeling the unfamiliar weight. The scalpel which the Surgeon of Death had used before was heavier than the ones she was used to working with. It had unfamiliar inscriptions etched into the handle, as well as a blade, following the edge of the sharp metal in a way that made her uneasy. It was like the whole design was poured from the letters into the tip of the scalpel. Once she'd cleaned it, after numerous washings, the runes had proven not to be black or rusted, but actual dips in the otherwise smooth metal. It was marvelous.

Nova felt out the odd energy emanating from the blade with her own, chasing the tendrils with her mana. Though, no matter how far she followed them, she couldn't get to the end of them. They were like endless roads which led somewhere where she couldn't reach. It was, indeed, a marvelous piece of a magic item.

The girl jumped as a portal opened in the middle of her room, a familiar head popping through. She stared into the bored-looking dark eyes of the captain of the Black Bulls. He gave her a once over, taking in the loose white shirt and brown baggy pants which hung from her waist casually. They were stained from her work in the herbal garden at the very top of their tower. Though, the man seemed to make up his mind quickly.

"Goldin, right?"

"Yes, sir," Nova confirmed.

"We got the right room this time," Yami said back into the portal. "Come, girl, you have work to do." Nova stood, grabbing her pouches from her bed and a pair of baggy work boots, before stepping through the portal. However, she didn't expect to find herself in a fairly fancy environment, instead of a sickbay or some kind of a battlefield. One look around told her exactly where she was.

"Your Majesty," Nova bowed to the blonde Wizard King who simply gave her a kind smile.

"No need for that, Nova," Julius Novochrono brushed her formalities off. "We know each other too well for that already." The healer nervously laughed, quickly assessing the situation. The Wizard King, the captain of the Black Bulls, an unfamiliar brown-haired mage and the two troublemakers from her emergency room were all there, standing around her in a rather relaxed manner. "A new dungeon has opened and I'm sending out a team to assess the treasure inside it," Julius told her. "You're going to be assigned to this team if the need for medical attention arises."

"Yes, sir," Nova saluted in the traditional way of common soldiers of the kingdom.

"You two," Julius turned to the two boys, Magna and Luck, as Nova recalled. "Nova is a civilian on this mission, it's your duty to keep her safe. Is that acceptable?"

"No problem, sir," Magna replied with an easy, confident grin. "We'll get it done."

"Alright then, Finral give them a ride," Yami piped up and the unknown mage nodded, opening his grimoire. A portal appeared in the room, shimmering in the air. "Go and surpass your limits." Nova couldn't help but muse about that last piece of advice as she stepped through the shimmering space, feeling a little sick to her stomach from the teleportation.

* * *

Luck proved to be an expert at sensing mana. Even in the Grand Mana Zone, which was a vast desert of unstable winds, he led them without a hitch towards their target. The three talked little, due to the sand flying into their eyes and mouth whenever they opened them. Nova took up the spot right behind Luck, holding onto his loose tunic from time to time, just so that she could close her eyes and give them a break from the harsh hot wind and the grains which were flying everywhere. Finally, she felt her hair stop whipping around her neck wildly, despite the tight braid she had it in, and she opened her eyes, blinking owlishly.

The small group was standing at the entrance of some kind of a tomb, tall stone wall around them, creating a cove in which the wind wasn't as harsh.

"Is this the dungeon?" Nova asked.

"It's the highest concentration of magic here," Luck shrugged. "I've never been to a dungeon before, but this is what they're described as."

"Let's go in and find out," Magna eagerly added, leading them through the tall doors. It took them a moment to break through the entrance, which was two stone slabs imbued with magic that simply did _not_ want to move, before leaving behind the hot desert wind behind. As soon as they stepped into the cool interior, an eager Luck first, then Nova, and finally Magna, the girl sighed in relief. The dungeon obviously had great isolation, due to the thick tone, making the temperature pleasantly cool and the air just a tad stale. Nova felt the sweat on her skin go cold, creating a thin layer of sticky substance where stray dust and grains of sand caught and stayed. She knew that she would come out of the dungeon looking like she'd been working for days on end in a coal mine.

"Which way, Luck?" Magna asked as they took a few steps inside, only to come upon a crossroads. The blonde boy stepped forward, looking from one entrance to the other, assessing all five of them. Electricity seemed to sparkle in the air, along with the feeling of swelling magic. Though, due to the high concentration of energy in the Grand Mana Zone, Nova could barely feel the change.

"Just not that way, please," the girl shamelessly begged, pointing to the entrance on the far right. There was something off-putting about it, even though it had the best lighting out of all the paths.

"Tough luck," Luck grinned at her, pointing to the entrance which gave her the heebie-jeebies. "That's where the mana is the strongest. I'm not sure if it will lead us to the treasure room, but I've heard that magical tools from dungeons give off a feeling like this," with a shrug, the blonde mage headed for the passage on the far right, smiling cheerily all the while.

"It'll be fine, Miss Nova," Magna tried to reassure her, patting her shoulder as they followed the blonde. "Luck might be a little off his rocker, but he's superb at sensing mana. And, in a fight, the two of us can do pretty much anything. We'll keep you safe." Despite the reassuring words, Nova didn't feel too comforted. The well-lit corridor had torches on each side, showing them the way down into the center of the dungeon. Though, there was a feeling there. There was something in the air which put her on edge. Mana? Perhaps it was the mana of the place which she could sense.

There were no passageways which connected to the one they'd picked, leaving the mismatched trio to walk for hours, mostly without breaks. Somewhere along the way, Luck and Magna started a funny little game of who can zap the other with magic without them noticing. Nova didn't participate, but she enjoyed the way Magna would squeal whenever Luck's lightning spark caught him.

Finally, the ground evened out, the two boys stopping their game, their faces becoming more serious. Luck took the front position again, walking before Nova who had been leading them until then. The passage opened up, this time to natural lighting. The girl couldn't help but glance around in awe. The space they'd come to was a wide room, with a delicate rug on the floor, woven probably by the hands of the ancient ones, the design intricate and mysterious. There were seats and tables made out of rock, like some kind of an oriental dining room. And, around the spacious circular room, there were golden gates. Doors which seemed to go as far up as the eye could see, before the sunlight coming seemingly from nowhere forced one to turn their eye away.

"Well, where now?" Magna asked, looking from one golden door with gems to the next, before turning to Luck. The blonde boy was standing in the center of the room, taking in the space, his head tilted to the side as he sensed for the mana.

"I… don't know," he finally said.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Magna's hands rose in exasperation. "You're the mana-sensing expert here. So, c'mon, give us a direction. Or at least guess a direction!" Nova ignored their banter, coming to one of the doors, the second one to the left and inspecting the designs of gems and golden veins.

"When I say I don't know I mean it, Magna," Luck protested in the background. "They all feel the same."

"Then guess!"

"I can't guess!"

"What about this one?" Nova brought the boys out of their argument, making them come over and take a look at the door she was curiously peering at. "There's something written here," Nova squinted, trying to make out what the golden veins spelled out in their circular and winding letters.

"I can't make that out," Magna squinted, as well, his head obstructing Nova's field of vision as he got too close. Then, the boy yelped jumping back. "Luck, now's not the time!" He turned to his Squad mate, glaring. Luck still had that smile on his face which he always did, but he raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Wasn't me," he defended.

"Ouch!" Nova jumped, certain that she'd felt electricity on her leg. She rubbed the sore spot, before looking to Luck, who tilted his head to the side, as if waiting for an accusation. But, Nova didn't accuse him. Instead, she looked down, under her feet, before she realized what was happening. "Oh, crap." And chaos erupted all around them.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoyed!**


	4. The scalpel the Surgeon of Death used

**I'm sorry I took a bit of a break, I've been a little buried in schoolwork and personal issues xD I'll try to update again soon :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 4: The scalpel the Surgeon of Death used**

* * *

"Everyone okay?" Nova came to at the groan which sounded quite a bit like the Magic Knight she'd met just a few days ago. She shook her head, realizing that she couldn't move her legs, before blinking rapidly. Something was uncomfortably stuck in her eye. "Guys, give me a shout if you need help getting out!" Magna. That was his name. Magna Swing. Then, there was a minor explosion somewhere to her right, rocks flying everywhere.

"I'm all good!" that voice was familiar, too. "Ready to fight! Did we get hit by an enemy?" Luck Voltia of the Black Bulls, Nova recalled. Something warm dropped into her eye, which still stung from dust and something else which was definitely stuck under her lower eyelid. "Where's Nova?" Luck asked, making the girl groan and raise her hand into the air, as high as she could.

"I'm here!" she yelled out. "I can't get out!" Not even a moment passed before Luck's and Magna's familiar faces appeared above her, the former looking mildly excited and the latter quite worried.

"Damn, that doesn't look good," Magna said, jumping down and landing right next to her. He crouched down, pushing away the few smaller rocks from Nova's abdomen, then peered down at her legs. "That does _not_ look good at all," he concluded with a frown. "Miss Nova, can you summon up the energy for a mana skin? You only have to keep it around your legs while we get this off of you." Nova shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. She had a killer headache.

"Magna, she's freaking out," Luck said from above, also jumping down and joining the group. "Nova, you need to calm down and let us help you get out of there." The girl looked up, seeing the uncharacteristically serious face of the Magic Knight above her. Then, she nodded. "Alright, get your mana skin on, if you can."

"I've never done that," Nova said in a tight voice. Magna opened his mouth to say something, but Luck was faster.

"Surpass your limits. Right here. Right now." Nova's eyes flew wide open, looking at the blonde Knight. "That's what our Captain always says," he commented, bending down and getting ready to help Magna with the rubble. "Ready?"

"No?" Nova replied, eyes wide and panic gripping her.

"We go on three," Magna glanced over at Luck and the other boy nodded.

"One," Luck said. Nova pushed all the mana she had in her body, focusing as much as she could, into her legs.

"Two," Magna continued. And then, the weight lifted off her legs, without that last count. Nova grit her teeth, doing her best not to scream as Luck pulled her out of the way of the rock. Then, Magna dropped the rock down with a huff.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, _ow_!" Nova realized that she was hyperventilating, panicking at the sight of her two, just moments before, perfectly good legs. Now, they looked like they belonged on farmer Tuck, before she'd performed a double fasciotomy on both his limbs.

"It's alright, Miss Nova," Magna reassured her, kneeling next to her and inspecting the damage. "It's alright."

"It's a crush injury," Nova shook her head, drops of blood falling onto her white top. "There might've been breaks or cracks or loss of blood flow. The worst-case scenario is a double amputation and the best-"

"Nova, calm down," Luck interrupted her. "It's not that bad. Just circulate your mana through your legs and perform any healing spells if you know them. We've got you." He was holding her hand, gripping it tight. Nova slowly took bigger and bigger breaths, forcing herself to calm down, before she nodded and followed his advice.

Truly, when she circulated her mana, she could feel everything was intact. The biggest problems were the superficial lacerations which were oozing blood, but no serious injuries.

"Any breaks?" Magna asked. Nova shook her head. "Alright. Do you have anything to wrap the cuts with in your med kit? I can sew, if needed." The girl nodded, grabbing her kit and taking out a needle and some thread, along with a roll of bandages.

"I don't think I'll be able to put any weight on them for a while," she admitted as Magna administered the local anesthesia which she'd given him, before he started cleaning and sewing up the bigger cuts. "You two should go ahead without me."

"Pft," Luck chuckled from her side, shaking his head. "Like heck, we're bringing you with us," he told her adamantly, a grin finally back on his face.

* * *

True to their word, the boys had worked on her legs, Nova giving instructions, before wrapping them up and packing the leftover supplies into her medkit. Then, Magna lifted the girl onto his back, gently, but tightly, holding her by the thighs while she gripped the material of his signature black cloak at his shoulders. Like that, the group continued on their way.

"It was a spell, wasn't it?" Nova asked as they left behind the rubble, going down the single path which led into the next section of the dungeon.

"Mhm," Luck confirmed. "There were runes on the rug and on the floor, step activated to detonate."

"We'll have to be careful of those kinds of traps down the road," Magna commented, not sounding bothered by the additional weight on his back. "It wouldn't be good if we had another fall like this."

"More pressingly," Luck spoke up from the front. "I don't think we're the only ones in the dungeon." He gave them a bright grin, making Magna and Nova exchange worried glances. "There are some other mana signatures which don't seem stationary."

"Other mages?"

"Probably," Luck shrugged. Then, he stopped, tilting his head, his grin spreading. "You guys are good here, right?" Magna stopped short, then sucked in a sharp breath.

"Wait, Luck," but before he could say anything, the boy took off with a wide, battle-crazed smile on his face. "I said wait you dumb Battle Maniac!" Magna's shout rang out through the empty corridor, the blonde Black Bull already gone. "Incorrigible, I say."

"Did he go to actually look for a fight?" Nova asked, bewildered.

"Yep," Magna replied, heading down the corridor with a sigh. "He's got an eye for trouble, that one. Always getting into fights."

"I remember him from the entrance exam," Nova commented off-handedly. "He beat up his opponent with unnecessary force." Magna nodded at that, sighing again.

"I remember," he told the girl. "Got himself into a pickle with Squad offers because of it. I mean, if his personality was just a tad more stable, he could've gone anywhere he wished. In the end, only Captain Yami wanted him."

"Better someone than no one," Nova frowned.

"You got no offers?"

"Yeah," she sighed, her head dropping to Magna's back.

"Well, you're here now, so that's gotta count for something?" The fire mage attempted to cheer her up. But, all that did was remind Nova that she had gotten into the medical wing by bitching to the Wizard King himself.

"Yeah, because everyone wants a medic who injures herself in the first five minutes of the mission," Nova bit back with a scowl. Magna, unsurprisingly, didn't have anything to say to that.

* * *

The room they finally arrived at, after many dead ends and turns, was round and humongous. Nova couldn't help but look around, taking in the oriental decorations as Magna continued forward, taking care how and where he stepped. There were sparkling veins swirling in complex, but visible letters. Sidestepping the traps, Magna made it to the tall golden doors which were unmistakably the entrance of the treasure room.

"It's open," Nova pointed to the right side, making the fire mage look up from his feet. They peered cautiously at the wide gap which led into the well-lit room.

"Well, only one way to find out why," Magna shrugged, taking a decisive step into the treasury. There was gold. Gold and silver everywhere. Jewels Nova had only imagined in her dreams tossed around in piles for the taking. It was a fortune. A rather large fortune. With only a pocketful she would be able to feed her family for months. Then, the gold in the distance flew up in a cloud of electrical sparks. "Well, I suppose that's why." Magna shrugged, then jogged to one of the gold piles. "Are you good to sit here until I can see what kind of a mess Luck has gotten himself in?"

"I'll be fine," Nova promised, bracing herself for the pain as Magna gently lowered her to the floor. The Knight nodded to her, then ran off in the direction of the fighting mages. Nova dared to peek out, from behind the tall pile of gold and gems, only to see Luck flying back, his magic forming boots of lighting on his legs, and smash into the wall with enough force to shake the whole room. Fire exploded from the center of fighting, then water gushed, and finally, another fire spell flew into the air, singing the ceiling.

"Puny Clover Knights," a deep voice growled from the back of the room, a mage emerging through the golden piles. He was humongous, with wide shoulders and dark hair. But, the most prominent of his features was a wide, jagged scar that ran from his forehead and vanished into his shirt. Nova gasped, quickly moving back behind her pile of gold, out of his field of vision. "I sense another little mouse in this room," the mage rumbled, footsteps coming closer and closer to Nova's hiding spot. Lightning buzzed, followed by a groan.

"It's not nice to leave behind a fight, old man," Luck's voice sounded strained, but excited. Nova peeked out again, seeing the two mages clash. Though the large man was definitely physically stronger and bulkier, Luck seemed to be doing alright, buzzing left and right, slamming his lightning armor boots into the opponent whenever he could.

Just when Nova was certain that Luck was winning, the bulky man on his knees in pain, another mage joined the fight, flinging the blonde Black Bull with a swipe of some kind of metal magic. Nova gasped as Luck rolled on the ground, finally stopping right next to her, blood pooling around him. She took one breath, then another, then pushed past the pain in her legs and scrambled to the blonde.

She assessed the situation quickly. Luck had a deep cut in his leg, definitely nicking the femoral artery by the volume of the blood around him. She grabbed onto the limb, pressing down as hard as she could, putting her weight behind it. The mage groaned, looking around blearily.

"I can still fight," the boy told her in a weak voice, pushing himself up.

"No, not with this wound," Nova adamantly replied. She kept the pressure on the wound as she tore off the belt from her pants, wrapping it around his thigh to form a makeshift tourniquet.

"Just patch me up until I win," Luck groaned, falling back to the floor. Nova finally glanced up, seeing the two advancing enemy mages. The bulky scar-face and the lithe woman with metal magic were walking towards them at a leisurely pace, their grins telling her that no help would come. She tossed a look behind the two, seeing Magna in a fight with another man, unable to spare even a second to look her way. Nova grit her teeth, grabbing for her medkit.

"I can't patch this up so you can fight again," Nova gasped out, working as fast as she could to stop the bleeding. "Do you have any long-distance spells?" Luck raised his arm, extending it towards the advancing enemy mages.

"Surpass your limits, right?" he asked with a grin, his grimoire glowing. Nova spotted letters appearing on the page rapidly, writing out a new spell. Then, his magic crackled in a blue light, wrapping around his extended arm and forming a glove, similar to his boots. A barrage of lightning bolts flew out of the tip of the gauntlet, aiming at the enemies.

The lithe woman flew forward, deflecting some, but finally taking one to her chest and dropping to the ground, spasming with the aftershocks of the lightning. The bulky man didn't stop moving. Instead of stopping or reassessing, he jumped forward, his grimoire out at the ready. Luck gave a small groan, managing to push one more bolt of lightning out of his gauntlet. The enemy mage shielded with a fire attack, before advancing yet again.

"Shit," Luck groaned, his face pale, arm dropping as the gauntlet vanished. Nova felt her heart race and with shaky hands, the girl let go of the leg she'd been working on, fingers slipping, slick with blood, as she worked to get her grimoire out of the chest pocket she had it in. She swiped through the pages, not finding anything even remotely helpful.

"Surpass your limits," she told herself under her breath, hands dropping the grimoire to the floor, blood making her fingers slick as she pulled out the scalpel from her pouch in her waist. She ignored the hum of mana in it, choosing to fling it forward through the air instead.

"Puny thing," the bulky mage laughed, catching the blade in his hand. Nova decided to throw caution to the wind. She knew enough to know remotely how to operate the damn thing.

"I'm puny, sure," she smiled, extending her bloodied hands forward. She felt for the trail of unusual magic in the scalpel, grabbing it with her own. "But underestimating me is going to suck so hard in a minute." Her hands twisted in the air, making a circular motion and the scalpel slid into the flesh of the mage in front of her. He screamed, a sound not of this earth, falling to his knees, twisting and twitching as the blade slid further and further into his arm. "You're mine," Nova whispered with a grin on her face, finally embracing the dark twinge of the mana in the Surgeon of Death's scalpel. It called to her with a whisper, promising, beckoning. Who was she to refuse victory?

The man stopped flailing, then he straightened out as Nova's hands moved in a pulling motion. When she raised them up, he stood, perfectly in sync with the tight muscles in her fingers. The energy of the scalpel was all around her now. It was like a drug, like a pull, inviting her gently to follow its lead. And, follow she did.

"Give me your grimoire," Nova said in a clear tone and the man walked forward like a zombie, his eyes glassy, handing the girl his red and yellow book of spells. She thumbed through it, finding a suitable page. "Why don't you go burn your comrade who's fighting over there?" The teen asked, giving the man back his grimoire, pages turned to a specific spell. He nodded, the book rising into the air next to him as Nova's fingers directed his body, like a puppet on her strings, to the fight where Magna was struggling.

The water mage, the only one left from the enemy group, seemed relieved when his companion appeared, only to get blasted with a quick fire spell to the front. He hadn't expected it. He hadn't braced for it. Magna lay on the floor, looking at Nova in shock as her fingers danced in the air, directing the enemy mage to decimate his companion. With a victorious grin, the girl pulled on the strings once more.

"More fire," she instructed, despite the pleadings of the water mage. "Kill him."

"Nova," Luck's voice from right in front of her brought her back to the reality of the situation, like coming off a high. He had a cut to his femoral artery. The tourniquet she'd applied meant that she'd stopped the bleeding, likely severing his usage of the leg in the process. She could fix it. Or kill the enemy.

Nova felt ice spread through her veins, her bloodied hands dropping from their tight position in the air. She'd almost let her patient lose his leg. Unnecessarily, too. She was a healer, not a Knight. She didn't let anybody lose their leg on her watch.

"It's okay, Luck," Nova said, her hands coming down to the leg once more. "I've got you." His eyelids fluttered, and she barely had enough time to think to herself how she had really long eyelashes, before his eyes were shut and he was out cold.

"Magna, can you do some restraining magic over there?! I'm kind of busy at the moment!" Nova yelled out, but didn't look to see whether the mage had listened to her. Instead, she got her sewing kit out of her pouch, the delicate needles for internal organs, and began working on the gap in the femoral artery in front of her face.

She disinfected the field with a spell, sewed up the damage, disinfected again, and then released the tourniquet. Nova checked the lower leg for pain stimuli, and smiled when she saw the muscles twitch. Then, she undid the laces of Luck's boot, slipping it off, then his sock, and carefully watched for any signs of poor blood flow as she worked to close the skin of the laceration. When she was done, disinfecting again, applying salve and then bandaging, the girl released a relieved sigh, dropping back to the ground, suddenly aware of the pain in her own legs.

"Is he going to be alright?" Magna's voice brought her out of her trip off the adrenaline of the surgery, making Nova look up. The fire mage had been there for a while, making himself comfortable on the ground in front of her and Luck, watching her work.

"Yeah," Nova nodded. "Looks like he'll be keeping his leg and surviving the blood loss, as well." Magna let out a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping, and head lolling towards his chest in exhaustion. Then, he slightly raised it again, looking at Nova.

"What was that?" He asked, inspecting the tired girl.

"I'd like to know, too," Luck's voice, crackly and exhausted, made the girl rush forward and help him sit up.

"Not too quickly, please," Nova told him, helping him drink some water from the bottle in his pouch. "If you strain too much you'll tear out your stitches."

"Don't avoid the question," Magna warned. Nova looked from one mage to the other. Magna seemed exhausted, but determined, a serious gleam in his eyes. Luck wasn't smiling, had blood on his face, and generally seemed ready to drop. He was too pale for her liking.

"Let's move from all of this blood and I promise to tell you all about it," Nova caved in.

* * *

Magna was the one who did most of the physical work. He carried first Luck, then Nova, to one of the numerous large cushions in the dungeon, helping them get settled in comfortably. Luck's blood had already begun to dry and crust on his clothing, where he absent-mindedly picked at the parts which were peeling off. Nova, on the other hand, was left without much to do, trying to clean the red liquid off of her fingers without water.

"It'll wash off," Magna sternly said to the both of them, sitting down with a grunt, and then he fixed Nova with his gaze. "Now talk."

"Do you know about the Surgeon of Death?" Nova asked in a small voice.

"Crazy guy who controlled people and made them kill each other?" Magna asked with a frown.

"Not just that," Luck piped up. "He was a superb mage. He didn't do much battling himself, but he invented a number of spells which we use even today for healing and battling. Curses, for example, were his invention. Also, soul transfer magic." Nova looked at the boy in astonishment. That wasn't easy knowledge to come by.

"Luck, are you a noble?" she asked. If he was a noble, that would make sense. Their libraries were well-stocked and gave quite a bit of information about a number of topics.

"No?" the boy grinned at her.

"Then how-?"

"I went to school with nobles," he shrugged. "Cause of my magic, you know. It's strong."

"Oh, one of those that let you enter if you can keep up with the curriculum even if you're a commoner?" Nova asked, a little surprised. Luck was certainly the last one she'd pegged for a person to attend a proper school. He was a commoner, a little on the unhinged side, and didn't seem all that bright to her.

"Mhm," the boy nodded as if it wasn't a big deal. "And, you gotta pay an entrance fee."

"Miss Nova," Magna's warning tone brought Nova back to the topic at hand. She would have time to dig into Luck's past later. For now, she had to give the best explanation she could to the two boys.

"Well, I was curious about the Surgeon of Death," she began again. "He's a great innovator in the medical field, as Luck has mentioned. So, when I saw one of his scalpels at the Black Market, I bought it." Magna almost fell from his cushion.

"You bought a cursed object?"

"I gotta fight you sometime, Nova!" The girl chose to ignore the latter comment.

"Yeah, I was curious," she told the flabbergasted fire mage. "It wasn't like I was planning to use it. I just happened to grip that scalpel first when I reached into my pouch."

"Miss Nova, using it changed you," Magna frowned, leaning forward. "You're aware that you were chanting to that man to kill his comrades, aren't you?" Nova looked down at her bloody hands, picking at the crusted liquid under her nails.

"It was like… like I was a different person," she spoke after a moment. "It felt right to do so, I don't know how to explain it otherwise." When she looked up again, Luck was cheerily smiling and Magna looked troubled.

"Perhaps you shouldn't use that magic until you know a little bit more about it?" the fire mage gently asked.

"I won't," Nova promised, then frowned. "No matter how strong it is, I was about to let a patient lose his leg in order to use the magic more in battle. And, I'm a healer. Until I learn more about it and how to use it properly, to be still in control, I won't use it."

"Alright," Magna nodded, then reached into his pocket and tossed something at the girl. Nova grabbed the glinting object out of the air, only to find it to be the scalpel in question. There wasn't even a drop of blood on it. "I was originally going to give it to Captain Yami. However, since you understand the risks, I'm trusting you." He gave her a pointed look.

"I won't disappoint you, Magna," Nova told him.

"Well, you have my permission to use it on me whenever," Luck laughed from his seat, electricity buzzing in the air. "As soon as my leg's better, let's see what that thing can do in battle!" Nova opened her mouth to tell him off, but then stopped.

"Actually, that might not be such a bad idea," she mused. "If you're willing, I could use some training after I figure out how _not_ to kill either myself or my opponent with this thing." She twirled the scalpel in her hands and then replaced it into her pouch.

"Mhm!" Luck cheerily nodded. "Sounds good!"

"Only under supervision," Magna told them, which made the two exchange glances, before smiling at him in unison. The fire mage raised his eyebrow, then shook his head, waving his hands in front of him. "No, no, I didn't mean-"

"Well," Nova interrupted with a smirk. "Since cursed objects _are_ frowned upon," she shrugged.

"And he already knows about it," Luck added with a smile too wide to be good.

"How nice of you to volunteer to help out, Magna," Nova gave him a sweet smile which spelled evil intentions.

"I have not," Magna grunted, rising from his seat. "I repeat, I have _not_ offered my help and _won't_ offer it to you two lunatics who want to play with cursed objects." He spun on his heel, heading off into the treasury to seek out the important artifacts.

"It's just a little curse!" Nova yelled after him, which made the fire mage shake his head furiously. Then, she turned to Luck, finding him eagerly smiling at her. "You think he'll come 'round?" The boy's grin widened.

"I'm sure we can arrange something to make him come 'round," the Cheery Berserker shrugged flippantly and made Nova wonder how in the world had she found allies, dare she even say friends, in such a strange group of people.

**Thank you for reading!**


	5. A home is where your bonds are

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: A home is where your bonds are**

Magna looked about ready to drop and, in all honesty, Nova felt rather bad for the poor mage. First, he'd gotten Luck out of the dungeon. Then, he'd come back and carried Nova out. Finally, he'd pulled the important artifacts into a sheet he'd found in the treasury and lugged those out, too. Then, he'd gone back for all three of their opponents and dragged them out, as well. They each had a fire cage around their chests, their grimoires confiscated safely in Luck's bag. After all of that work, the boy took a small break, before heading back down into the dungeon and carrying as much gold as he could in different chests and sheets, making a sizeable pile next to the two injured teammates.

"Can you guys call for Finral?" Magna asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. He had dropped off another pile of wealth, before heading back into the dungeon. "Could really use a cart or something, if the Wizard King wants all of the treasure from inside."

"No problem!" Luck grinned, waving at the fire mage who only huffed, resuming his taxing work.

"Soo," Nova began, turning away from the three enemies she'd inspected for injuries and to the lightning mage. "How exactly _do_ you call Finral?" She asked, tilting her head. Luck fished out a small plaque from his pouch showing it to her.

"Got these at the market some time ago," he told the girl. "It's a mirror plaque, so if you break one the other one receives the same kind of damage. We told Finral to wait for the crack and then open a portal to our location once more." Nova nodded, peering out into the hot desert.

"But, he's going to have to cross the desert to come to us," she said, shielding her eyes from the particularly violent gust of wind.

"Indeed, he will," Luck chuckled, breaking the plaque with a rather innocent expression on his face. Nova couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

Nova found herself rather restless in the next couple of days. In her short life, she'd never really been majorly sick. Sometimes a cold or a virus would take her down for the count for a couple of days. Generally, though, she'd always been a healthy child. Once, she'd broken her arm. Only once. She'd been helping the miners with the new tunnel for some extra yul, when a cave-in had occurred, one of the falling rocks making a clean break on her radius. She'd gotten it checked out, bandaged and put in a sling in mere hours, before being back out in the field, working. Her injury had been classified as minor. Some men had lost their legs that day. One man had died. Her broken arm had been an easy fix and a quick one to heal. A mere month of her arm in the sling and she was back climbing trees and causing mayhem.

But, her legs were a different story entirely. Owen had told her that healing with magic meant forcibly making the cells reproduce at a higher rate. It was a taxing process, taking its toll on the body. Since the injury wasn't life-threatening, he left her legs to heal on their own. This meant that she had Mary or Elizabeth helping her bathe, go to the bathroom and get dressed. She also had to have her meals brought to her, as well as some books to keep her company. Long story short, Nova was ready to blow a fuse by the end of the week.

She'd managed to weasel some information out of Mary, while the girl was working to clean up her room a tad. Luck had been admitted into the Healing Tower, sitting bored just a few floors under herself, causing trouble whenever he could. Mary had cursed whatever deity had given the boy an electrical affinity. He zapped patients, started fights, zapped healers and started arguments. It was a never-ending stream of mayhem from the boy. He was classified by Mary and Will as a 'dislikeable', which meant that they almost always played rock-paper-scissors and the loser had to treat him.

A full week had passed when, finally, something changed in Nova's new routine. She had been reading a book on plants surrounding the Capital and their uses, a notebook on the side where she collected her findings and ideas about which herbs she would check out when she got the clear, when her door burst open.

"Miss Nova!" Magna, in all his slicked-back hair glory entered the bedroom, looking around curiously. "Haven't really settled in, have you?" he asked conversationally, choosing to ignore the chair next to her bed and instead plop down next to her. Nova moved to give him more space and the boy surprised her by flopping over to his back, settling his head right next to her torso on the pillow.

"Feet off the sheets," Nova grumbled, making Magna grin mischievously. But, he obliged, toeing off his boots and then putting his feet up again comfortably. "I don't really have many things to put in the room."

"Well, we'll just have to rectify that one of these days," Magna grinned, looking at her upside down from his position. His arms were folded under his head, one elbow digging into Nova's side rather uncomfortably.

"What can I help you with?" the girl sighed, closing her books. She could tell that trouble #1 wouldn't let her do any decent work if he had any say in it.

"Well, it's payday!" Magna cheerfully commented. "And, the Wizard King gave you the same sum for a successfully completed dungeon which he gave us, so I figured you'd wanna join me and Luck in some shopping?"

"Luck and I, and I can't. I still need to keep weight off my legs," Nova corrected absent-mindedly, before adding the cause of her semi-crazed state. There was no way Owen would let her jeopardize her legs on account of a little shopping trip in the center.

"Well, you're in luck, then," Magna shot up in the bed, turning to her excitedly. "Miss Mary told me that if you agreed to come, we could take one of those wheely chairs and bring you in it."

"A wheelchair?" Nova asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that new thing Miss Elizabeth has been working on for the amputees," Magna nodded eagerly. He had that crooked grin on his face which Nova had come to associate with either a good fight or some mischief he was planning. "I mean, they need someone to test drive it anyway. So, it's a plus plus all round."

"I suppose I could-"

"Perfect!" the boy jumped off her bed eagerly, grabbing his boots and rushing for the door. "I'll tell Miss Mary you agreed and she'll be in to help you get dressed in a bit. Then we can go do some proper coin-spending!" And, before Nova could protest, the boy was gone.

She took the books on covers and carefully made sure her rush to move them away from the typhoon which was Magna didn't get any pages crinkled. As she was placing them on her nightstand, the girl realized that her chest was full of some kind of a different feeling. An elation, if she dared call it. A grin formed on her lips when she realized that she would, finally, be let out of that room and back into the sun.

"So, he managed to convince you?" Mary asked as she entered Nova's room, much more quietly than Magna had.

"He had to do very little convincing," Nova admitted with a laugh.

* * *

Nova was flabbergasted to find Luck joining them on his own two feet. He was using a single crutch, hobbling along with Magna's slow pace easily. But, for someone whose femoral artery had been sliced open just a week ago, he looked like a man reborn. She didn't ask, but she would bet that Owen had healed his leg with magic, at least partially. Her patch-up job had been rather rushed and messy.

Magna didn't take them to a neighboring city, but rather to the center of the Capital, where there was a buzzing market of knickknacks and various delicious-smelling foods. He and Luck spent their time talking about the mission, how they liked the Black Bulls and their captain, a formidable man in their stories. Nova was content to keep quiet and listen, simply, enjoying their occasional banter. She was comfortable in the wheelchair, a wooden contraption Elizabeth had been working on to ease their patients' movement after a difficult injury. It had a cushioned seat and was rather spacious, despite the few issues it had with movement and the wheels getting stuck.

"How are you liking the Healing Tower, Miss Nova?" Magna asked, pulling the girl back into reality and away from salivating at the stand with chicken in some kind of sauce which they were passing by.

"It's really nice, though a bit hectic," Nova answered honestly. She didn't feel like she had to put on airs with the two boys, which made her all that much more comfortable. "We have regular patients and then the Knights who drop in and cause absolute mayhem with their injuries."

"Oh, I can recall," Magna laughed, reminding Nova that he had been in the Tower himself not too long ago.

"Can any of you guys fight?" Luck wanted to know with an eager smile. Nova nodded.

"Will and Mary have passed the Knights' Exam," she replied. "Will is in the Azure Deer Squad, but he doesn't usually get called in much. There is some kind of a deal with his captain and Owen, so that he can perfect his healing first and then get more integrated in missions. Mary is in the Blue Roses. She passed her exam three years ago and often gets called on tasks for the squad." Nova couldn't help trailing off as she eyed another stand of food, her stomach rumbling and reminding her how she hadn't eaten anything besides a rather small breakfast. "I'm not sure about the rest of them."

"You gonna take the exam again?" Luck asked, making Nova snap out of imagining some nice vegetable soup in her hands.

"I… don't know…" she replied, looking at her hands. She was afraid of taking the exam again. The memory of standing in front of those captains, their expressions stoic as they gave her no offers was still too fresh. Even if she could use the cursed scalpel to some degree in battle, it wasn't enough to pass, in her opinion.

"Well, she's got a year to train," Magna shrugged. "There's really no need to rush! Besides, helping us out on missions works out just fine." He laughed loudly, catching quite a few looks from the passing people.

"Guys, can we get some food?" Nova finally decided to break their walk, not able to stand all the delicious, tantalizing smells around her. She just wanted some food.

"Where did you think we were going?" Magna laughed again.

"We're going to show you the best place to eat, Nova," Luck's face appeared next to hers, before a telltale buzz of lightning zapped her, right in her behind and made the girl jump in her chair.

"Oh, for Wizard King's sake!" the teen exploded, turning in her seat to glare at the lightning mage. Though, by his expression, a little too content and innocent for that discharge to have been accidental, she instantly knew that she'd made a crucial mistake.

"What's wrong?" Luck tilted his head innocently, his eyes telling her oh-so-you-can-react-if-I-zap-just-enough.

"Nothing," Nova huffed, not willing to give in to his teasing again. She focused on the sight in front of her with a stony expression.

"No fair," Luck pouted, but she wasn't falling for it. That boy got off on the rise he received from his victims and Nova refused to be another one in the long line of people frequently zapped merely for his amusement.

"Give me food, you two scoundrels!" Nova whined, shamelessly at that point, the comment accompanied by her stomach rumbling in agreement. Magna and Luck laughed in unison, not caring about the whispers about the Black Bulls kidnapping people which followed them through the crowd.

* * *

"So, wait, explain these stars to me again?" Nova had forgone all courtesy as soon as their food had arrived, deciding that if the boys were going to behave like they were at home, so would she. The girl didn't bother chewing and swallowing before talking, instead speaking through her food, much like she would back in her village. Her mother would certainly blow a fuse if she could see Nova now, in the company of two Magic Knights, eating messily as she argued across the table.

"Each squad gets stars from the Wizard King for a well-accomplished mission," Luck told her, also speaking through his food. When Magna wasn't paying attention, the blonde boy swiped some of his sauce, smirking deviously. "You get them for assisting in combat, working in fields where there aren't enough people, getting supplies where they need to go, and so on."

"We didn't get one cause we had you on our mission," Magna added, his fork waving in the air, a piece of freshly roasted meat on it. He dunked it in his sauce, only to see there was less of it than there had been. "Luck, you little-"

"But, why would your captain agree to me going with you if he knew you couldn't be rewarded for the mission?" Nova ignored the quickly approaching argument, trying to distract both Magna, who was ready to flame up, and Luck, who eagerly awaited the reaction to his little prank.

"We don't really care about the rewards in our squad," Magna shrugged.

"Indeed, we're always last, according to Finral," Luck nodded sagely. Nova tilted her head to the side, chewing through her sandwich of thinly cut spiced meat and various vegetables. The boys had been more than right in their choice of food stalls, the grub was heavenly. And, cheap as dirt, to boast.

"Then, next time you ought to go without me," the girl told them, just as Luck was attempting to zap Magna in order to get the other mage mad. When he momentarily paused, then flexed his fingers, electricity sparking, she knew that she had merely delayed the whole thing. Quickly, Nova grabbed a piece of garlic bread from the basket in the middle of the table and threw it at the boy's face, hitting him square in the forehead.

"Ooooh, Nova-" Magna started, formality long forgotten, but it was too late for him to finish those words, or add anything else to her previous statement for that matter. Luck was simply too quick to grab a piece of cucumber from his plate and toss it at Nova, landing it in the between her breasts. There was a short moment of silence, before the blonde chuckled and mayhem ensued, food being thrown everywhere by the three people present.

* * *

Nova's legs got better and better, making her able to move around on her own pretty soon. She was eager to resume her work with Elizabeth, visiting the regular patients and helping out in the reception room at the tower. There seemed to be an endless stream of injured Magic Knights for her to practice her medicine on. Though, practicing medicine was a questionable term for what the girl did. She was almost always accompanied by at least one senior healer, even when simply testing for diseases in their makeshift lab. Well, if one could call the secluded part of the herbal yard on the roof a lab, even. It mostly looked like a mess the garden had thrown up.

Regardless, Nova embraced the hectic healing methods of the residents of the tower. Will was the best when it came to making salves. He showed her how just adding a bit more of one ingredient could completely change the texture, making it suitable for one or the other type of the wound. He also taught the girl how to pack her salves so that they wouldn't spoil on the road.

Mary was their resident expert on bones. While one really wouldn't expect that from the small, plump woman, she was one terrifying force of nature when it came to broken bones. She fixed them with her hands, without any magic, though many speculated how she _did_ , in fact, somehow incorporate her abilities into the skill. Nova knew, the first time she saw the woman pull apart a broken arm and set the ulna and radius in a single, precise motion, that she herself would never be able to do that. Yet, she's learned how to differentiate between a break and a crack within a week of watching Mary at work from her wheelchair.

Elizabeth, who could only be called Lizzie by Owen, was less of a medicine woman in the recent years and more of an inventor. Will swore how she was the best when it came to any extremely contagious conditions and other exotic bugs, but Nova had yet to see her expertise at work. She generally followed Elizabeth around, especially after she'd shed her wheels in favor of a single cane, and the girl had only seen her mentor do routine work. The healer did everyday house calls, dealt with easy injuries at work, checked in on an occasional chronic patient and other than that, spent a lot of time in her own room, working on new inventions to ease their mundane tasks, like the wheelchair.

Nova had yet to meet Timothy, even after a month of being at the tower, but she didn't mind that one bit. When she asked about the last member of the team, everyone else got a very peculiar, not too excited, look on their face.

"You know how there's that saying?" Mary had said once when Nova asked about the mysterious, never to be found, healer. "A mother must love her crazy child?"

"Not really?" Nova's eyebrow had risen at the way Mary's expression had turned sour. The woman hadn't stopped working on hanging the laundry, though.

"Even if the mother's child is bonkers, she's still going to love it, because it's in her nature?" the healer had explained. "That's how we love Timothy, like a mother loves her crazy kid."

"O-oh," Nova had nodded, resuming her work of tying small bundles of rosemary together and then hanging them to dry.

But, despite the uncomfortable topic which nobody wanted to talk about, Timothy, Nova's life at the tower had become rather familiar. She'd rise early in the morning, do her chores at the herbal garden, then get some breakfast and visit the regular patients with Elizabeth. When it was about time for lunch, she'd arrive back at the tower, where Mary and Will would take over her education after a quick meal. In the afternoon Nova would have some free time before dinner, which was usually occupied by Magna or Luck, or both at once, who seemed to think that after each and every scuffle they should come to her for patching up. After managing to throw the two boys out, Nova would get dinner and then write down all of the important details of her day in her little medicine book.

It was nice and comfortable, and Nova made sure to tell that to her mother and father in her letters home. Though there wasn't much to remind her of home at the Capital, and her only contact with her parents were letters, the girl felt oddly at peace with her new surroundings and routine. It felt familiar somehow, like a good dream that she didn't really want to wake up from.

Nova was walking back to the tower, lost in her thoughts, arms heavy with all the groceries she'd purchased, when she spotted him. It was a Magic Knight, wearing the short cape that belonged very obviously to the Crimson Lions, hopping from one foot to the other in front of the tall tower doors. He had pale blonde hair, tied in a very short ponytail, which only made Nova think how Luck would look with that kind of a hairstyle. Though, when he turned, the girl saw that he had a certain baby face kind of look and visage, which was more than memorable.

"Are you here for a healer?" the girl asked, pulling one bag higher on her shoulder, so that it wouldn't slide down, as she climbed up the few steps to the tall doors.

"Remi Beaumont, of the Crimson Lion!" the young man, Nova guessed about her age, saluted her as if she were the Wizard King himself. "I'm here to report that there is an incoming platoon of injured Knights coming! They're coming! They're on their way here!" He stopped talking, eyes scrunching as he realized that he'd repeated himself a number of times, before actually looking at the bewildered girl in front of him. "Can I help you with those?" the young man asked, looking much more relaxed and his voice becoming a rather pleasant tone, now that he wasn't shouting his head off.

"Um, sure, Remi Beaumont of the Crimson Lion," Nova giggled as she handed him a couple of bags, enjoying that he blushed profusely. "Shall we enter and get ready for that platoon?"

"Yes, ma'am," Remi nodded eagerly, still a little red in the face. Nova couldn't stop giggling as she pushed the doors open, letting them both get out of the warm sun. "It was open the whole time?" the Magic Knight asked in shock.

"Oh, yeah," Nova nodded, leading him up the stairs and towards the common area. "We keep it unlocked, in case there's an emergency. You could say that we literally always have our doors open," the girl giggled, showing Remi where to put the bags. "I'm Nova, by the way. Nova Goldin, and I'm the newest member at the tower."

"It's very nice to make your acquaintance, Miss Nova." Remi lavishly bowed to her, and Nova felt like a true noblewoman for a brief second. "My Captain and comrades will be in your care." She shook her head, greatly amused by the unusual Knight.

"Let's go downstairs and get the beds ready," Nova led Remi back to the ground floor and started preparing the space. "How many people are we expecting? Were you injured at all?" While asking the routine questions, Nova thought back to what she knew the other healers said they would be doing. Mary was visiting a patient outside of the Capital, so she was out of action. Will had mentioned that he'd be in the hills, gathering more herbs which they didn't grow in their garden, so he could help if he came home early. Elizabeth was likely in her room, so Nova knew that she'd need to ring the woman before the Knights arrived. And Owen, he was nowhere to be seen, as was the usual case with him. Undoubtedly the Wizard King kept him busy.

"There are seven of us, including me," Remi replied, making the girl shake her head and refocus on the matter at hand. She would have to do triage until Will arrived, and pass the more urgent cases to Elizabeth. "I wasn't injured badly, just a little cut on my side. That's why I was sent out first. Our Captain was the worst, as far as I saw, Miss Nova. He fought an entire platoon of Diamond Kingdom invaders on his own."

"Do you remember what injuries he sustained? And do you know his blood type?" Nova went to the cupboard, getting bandages and supplies, arranging them carefully on trays near beds so that she could quickly access them later. "Please, sit down, Remi."

"Cuts and bumps, mostly," the Knight shakily replied, plopping down on one of the chairs available by the beds. "I saw a bad gash on his stomach and he was having trouble breathing." Nova grabbed some suturing kits and filed away the fact that the man probably had some broken ribs.

"Alright," she turned, walking to a shaking Remi, who looked to be coming down from his adrenaline high. "Show me that wound of yours? I'll work on it until your platoon arrives." As Remi took off his shirt to show his injury, Nova walked to the small lever by the door, pulling the one she knew would ring a bell in Elizabeth's room. Then, the girl went to work.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the update :)**

**A little food for thought: I've been re-watching the anime and I realized that Luck is actually quite smart xD It was always my hc that he was a rather clever kid, but if you pay attention, in the fight with Elf Dorothy, he is the one who comes up with the idea of summoning real Dorothy. Also, he always has all the explanations at the ready for Asta. What do you guys think?**

* * *

**My thanks goes out to silverwolf_fox, Infinity_Writes, Bridgette and Aesx for the wonderful comments!**


	6. Fail better

**Greetings! Thank you for all the comments and reviews, I've been having a great time reading them, they really encourage me to write more :)  
**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Fail better**

Nova was in a state of mild panic. After she'd finished dressing Remi's wound and getting him seated in one of the large sofa chairs at the back of the reception room, as they called it at the tower, she realized that Elizabeth must be out. After all, ringing the bell to her room hadn't woken her, which it could, as the girl had herself found out a few days ago, nor gotten her to join them downstairs. This meant that, until Will or Owen came back, she was alone with dealing with whatever came through the doors of the tower. And, unlike usually, when they did expect a large number of patients, she knew that there wouldn't be anybody to help her.

"Are there any healers in your platoon?" Nova asked the resting Knight in the corner and Remi instantly perked up.

"No, Miss Nova," he told her. "We have a few people who can do basic first-aid, but nothing fancy."

"Alright," the girl nodded to herself. Indeed, she would be alone in this. She was sorting through the clean bandages and salves when the doors burst open, a stream of Knights coming inside. "Please, place the major injuries and those who can't move on their own on the available beds," she told them, but they were talking amongst themselves and not really listening to her. "Please, the major injuries on the beds-woah!" Nova caught a swaying young man, helping him to a bed and making sure his legs were on it, as well. She helped the Knight raise his lower limbs at the knees, so that the blood would pool into his torso, making his heart pump more into his head. That would at least keep him conscious.

She looked up from the man, to see that the Knights weren't really doing as they were told. Instead, they seemed to be arguing about the mission in semi-polite tones, their Captain not lifting a finger to help the girl. She frowned at the sight. Just as Nova was about to attempt, yet again, to gain control of the situation, as she'd seen Mary do a number of times, the door opened again.

"Hey, Nova!" Luck's familiar cheery voice rang out as the Black Bulls Knight brought in his sparring buddy, Magna, holding him up. "We need some patching up!" Nova sighed, feeling her irritation spike as an argument broke out between the two squads instantly. The Crimson Lions wasn't a very rude division. They were generally quite nice and listened to healers, but it seemed that even they had issues with the Black Bulls. Comments, masked in polite words, were tossed at the two newcomers, and Luck wasn't above shooting out a challenge or two, eager to continue testing his strength when the opportunity was presented to him on a silver platter.

"Enough!" Nova finally screamed out, causing all eyes to turn to her. "Silence!" when one of the Crimson Lions opened his mouth again, she put up a finger into the air, stopping him from talking. "No. speaking," the girl broke her words up, as if that would make them listen to her. "Everyone will major bleeding, big bruises, burns or unable to stand on their own is to get into a bed," nobody moved. "Now!" Nova clapped her hands together, the sound vibrating through the room.

"I think it's best to listen to our healer," finally, the Captain of the Lions spoke up, a small smile on his face. "There will be time for talking and issuing challenges later." And at those words, the Knights moved quickly.

"Luck, put Magna on a cot, as well, and grab that tray for me," Nova told the boy, taking a clean apron and tying it around her body.

"What?" the boy asked, tilting his head.

"I'm going to need an assistant, come on," Nova pulled on a pair of fresh surgical gloves, not looking to see if he had listened to her. But, as soon as she rushed over to the first, by the looks of it, most urgent case of bleeding, the blonde Black Bull was right next to her, tray in hand. He looked bored by his tasks, which continued to be assigned, but he listened to her well and followed orders without talking back.

Nova moved from one patient to the next, changing gloves as she went. There were two, a man and a woman, who had fought against someone who slashed. They had minor cuts and large lacerations, but generally everything was easy to treat, even without her magic. The woman who'd battled a fire mage had large burns on her arm and leg, for which Nova had to open her grimoire.

"Creation: OR," the girl murmured, letting her small blue book of spells float next to her in the air. A large dome of bluish color spread around the patient and the healer, enveloping Luck, as well. As Nova started removing the debris from the burns, her magic already applying disinfectant, painkillers and salves, the boy seemed to look around, taking his time to poke at the very edge of the bubble.

"So, this is your magic?" Luck asked curiously.

"Yeah," the girl replied, brows furrowed as she fished out a particularly stubborn piece of rock in the wound.

"Does it do anything?"

"Disinfects, freezes, cools, heats, applies salve, and so on," Nova told him absent-mindedly.

"Can it be used in battle?" Of course, he was interested only in the application in a fight. If there was one thing which Nova had learned about Luck, it was that he valued battle prowess above everything else.

"I haven't tried," the girl shrugged, tossing her instruments on the tray and washing out the wounds again. The arm looked pretty bad, but she thought that she could save it.

"You need to try to use it in a fight," Luck commented cheerily. "Otherwise it's useless." Nova's patience had run out, though.

"Look, Luck, not all of us want to be the first to fight," she told the boy with a sigh. "I just want to patch up people, okay?" The boy's head tilted again to the side, as if processing her words.

"Alright," he shrugged, but what Nova didn't know was the fact that he had already processed the information well. There were fighters and there were healers in his mind now. And, despite Nova being weak in battle, she was strong on another front. A battle which he couldn't fight himself. She was strong when it came to saving lives.

* * *

"Holy crap," Will whispered under his breath, stopping short at the door of the tower, watching the flurry of movement which was happening. He had his gathering gear on, brown baggy slacks with multiple pockets and a green shirt with no sleeves. A bag full of harvested herbs was slung over his shoulder, heavy and jingling with multiple jars inside. There was a wide-rimmed hat on his head, as well, shielding him from the harsh summer sun of the Clover Kingdom, which was infamous for giving sunburns.

But, what he walked in on wasn't at all what he expected to find after his long harvesting trip through the surrounding fields and mountains. Warm in the setting sun, Will had expected a calm, quiet tower to welcome him, as the newcomer, a girl he had judged would do well in their field, was a rather reserved person. Nova spent her free time in her room, reading, studying or sleeping. Will most certainly did _not_ expect to find _this_.

The reception room was full, almost all of the beds occupied with various Knights, the majority seemingly from Crimson Lion. What surprised him was the lack of yelling and magic spells flying about, as they usually did. Instead, all of the Knights were calmly waiting for their turn to be treated chatting in hushed tones, and, from what he could see, most of them had already received quite a bit of treatment. There was a boy following Nova around, a new blonde kid who had joined the Black Bulls just a month or so ago. He seemed to had been tasked with assisting the young girl.

What shocked Will the most, however, was Nova herself. She wasn't trembling in a corner, not sure what she should or could do. He had been worried that she'd never even attempt to step out of that comfort zone and join them as a healer. But, what he saw was a completely different young woman. Nova moved with confidence, didn't hesitate even for a second, and she had such great concentration that she hadn't even noticed him standing in the doorway. She was working on the Captain of the squad now, Will could recognize the nobleman easily, treating the deep cuts on his arms.

Instead of interrupting, the senior healer decided to watch, taking in the extent of Nova's magic and knowledge and planning out how best to proceed with her tutoring. He slowly placed down his supply bag, making sure that the cube-shaped container didn't announce his presence with the jingling jars, and then leaned comfortably onto one side of the doorway, taking in the actions of the newest apprentice.

* * *

"By herself?" Owen asked, looking at Will over his glasses. The two healers were in the room their leader typically used for treatments, sitting at the desk and drinking tea. Will had been rather eager to present a new brew which could dull the pain quite well, while not being addicting. It was a mixture of feverfew and St. John's wort, a nasty concoction, though effective.

"Believe me, I would've intervened had I seen the need to," the younger healer said, raising his hands in surrender. "But, she was on top of the whole room full of injured Knights. And her magic! You should've seen the brilliant application of it! She creates a dome in which she's got a sterile environment that aids her in her surgical process," Will gushed, eager to explain the whole thing to Owen. "It's not a healing spell or anything, but it's something I've never seen before. If Nova manages to get that thing to do even more complex actions, except disinfecting and applying salve, it could change the way we practice medicine forever!"

"Indeed," Owen nodded, his fingers going to his chin as he considered the new information. "It wouldn't mean forcibly multiplying cells, but actually helping the body heal through natural processes. We wouldn't be shortening the lives of our Knights, but could extend them by a few decades."

"Right?" Will stopped talking, his mind obviously blown by the new information he'd received. Then, Owen chuckled, making the younger healer give him a curious look.

"When Julius told me he's sending me a new healer, one who can fix people without destroying their lifespan in the process, I'd laughed," the healer said. "He'd told me that this girl, merely fifteen, would decimate healing as we know it and make it into something entirely new, and I had been skeptical. Even when Nova herself had told me about her medical practices, I'd been dubious. However, this is, indeed, a gamechanger."

"What do we even do with someone like her?" Will asked, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Owen's question had little malice to it, and more of a curious note.

"I mean, her magic is so unusual, as are her methods," the young healer elaborated. "So, how do we teach her? And, _what_ do we even teach her?" The apprentice looked to his mentor, lost as to what they ought to do next.

"Pour everything we know into her head," Owen told him after a brief moment of silence. "Pound the knowledge we have spent generations learning and see how she connects it and implements it. The girl has the potential to make conclusions and think up applications that we haven't considered, as we rely on healing spells the majority of the time. With her restrictions and our knowledge, we could actually realize the full potential which Julius talked about."

"See one, do one, teach one?"

"See one, do one, teach one indeed," Owen agreed, smiling at their motto.

* * *

"No, no, no," Will shook his head, exasperated. Nova was proving to be an eager student, but not one who could follow his methods as much as he'd hoped. "You weave the healing magic into the instrument before you plunge it in. Then it transfers to the salve while you're mixing it, making it more potent."

"But, my healing spells are very weak?" Nova asked, looking up at the healer with wide eyes, a blush on her cheeks.

"Alright, how would you modify it to be able to make the salve yourself?" he asked, letting go of the pestle and mortar and sitting down on the tall chair. The two were in the common area, Will teaching Nova how to mix the most basic of salves herself. They each had a large cup of coffee next to them, breakfast forgotten in favor of teaching and learning. The morning rounds to see how their patients were doing proved helpful, seeing as one Knight had developed an infection. The others, though, were doing rather well and could be discharged within the week, according to Will's estimate of their conditions.

"I would buy it from you?" Nova asked, sounding a little unsure, making Will shake his head again.

"What if you were somewhere you couldn't reach me?"

"I'd find someone with teleportation magic."

"What if I were dead."

"I'd find someone else who could make the salve."

"Dammit, Nova!" Will's hands came down on the table hard, making the girl jump in her seat. "You need to know how to make this salve yourself! No outside help!" he realized that he'd scared the poor thing, shaking his head and extending his hand to grab hers on the table. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just, you were doing so great yesterday! Now, all that's left is to learn and adapt. So, think. Nova, _think_ how you can make this salve your own."

The girl's wide eyes slowly went from fearful to a blank look, telling Will that her mind was racing, trying to find a solution. He watched her as she frowned, smiled, shook her head, then frowned again, and finally went into a daze once more. He was certain that her brain would catch on fire if she attempted to think about it any longer.

"Alright," Will said, his voice tired, making Nova snap out of her daze. "Let's call it a session here and leave that question to be answered until the end of the day. Feel free to hit the books or the basement." The girl nodded reluctantly and then started packing up the ingredients they had used and washing the utensils before storing them in their proper spots. "Now then, breakfast." Will grinned at the newcomer and she eagerly smiled back.

"Eggs?"

"Eggs."

* * *

"You're free to go," Nova said to Magna, yawning through the words. The fire mage laughed at her face, unable to hold himself back.

"Gosh, Nova, you look tired!" he said to the girl, who just groaned.

"Will has been on me since the morning with training," she replied, jotting down the information about Magna's healing process into his chart, before looking up at him with tired eyes. "I won't be having any free time soon, seems like."

"At least you're getting stronger, so that's a plus," Magna, ever the optimistic one, smiled at her. "Did you have a chance to do any research on that scalpel and whatever that God of Curses healer you like so much?" Nova chuckled at his mistake.

"Just a bit," she replied. "I managed to find some books in the basement about the Surgeon of Death. The majority of information is what I already know. He was a man who lived about two hundred years ago and he invented a lot of the surgical procedures which are overlooked today. He preferred healing through working on the wounds, instead of regenerating cells."

"How's that different from the healing we get here? It's just slower," Magna asked, frowning.

"Well, when you get healed by a Magic Knight, your wounds simply close, right?" Nova asked. When he nodded, she continued. "The Surgeon of Death realized that the magic used to do so made the cells in the body replicate at a faster rate. Essentially, that means that you're shortening your lifespan every time you get healed, bit by bit."

"You mean it's killing us? The healing which we get?" Magna startled.

"Technically, yes," Nova sighed, trying to explain to the best of her abilities. "It's a slow process, but the cells in the body aren't meant to replicate that quickly. Let's say you break your leg, okay?" Magna nodded again. "The natural process would be your bone healing itself over a span of a month or so, slowly mending in a new way and giving you perhaps issues with mobility."

"Like, a limp?"

"Sometimes," the girl nodded. He was getting it. "But, what the healing magic does is fix it to be as good as it was before. So, it forces the bone to heal unnaturally fast and give you full mobility."

"And that's bad?" Magna frowned.

"Not necessarily," Nova shrugged. "Some of the injuries would be fatal if left alone to heal. But, the minor ones could be fixed through natural means, with only a bit of help from surgeons. That's what the Surgeon of Death was working on. A way to heal without decreasing life expectancy."

"So, a better way?"

"Again, not necessarily. Magic Knights are combatants," Nova smiled when Magna looked completely confused by her explanation. "What I mean is that a lot of them die in battle. So, healing magic or no healing magic, the life expectancy for a Magic Knight isn't that long." The girl finished up with Magna's chart, closing it. "Hence, his methods weren't implemented much. But, they shouldn't be disregarded."

"Where does the people controlling scalpel come in, though?" the fire mage asked, waving his hands. "I get the methods and all that, but that man also used the scalpel which clearly allowed you to _control_ a man."

"That's a different topic entirely," Nova leaned back in her chair, tired. The training with Will had exhausted her. And, still, she didn't have the answer to his salve problem. "While the Surgeon of Death was a great healer, he also had a more problematic side. He enjoyed experimenting with cursed objects. The scalpels he used are proof enough. I only have one, and it's rumored that he used five of them, blades of different sizes."

"So, if one can control a human, the others could do something different?"

"I suspect that," Nova nodded.

"Wild," Magna laughed, getting up. "When you catch a break from your training, be sure to come by the Black Bulls. Luck hasn't stopped talking about how he wanted to try fighting against that weird magic of yours."

"I'll be sure to do so," Nova grinned, waving goodbye to the young man. When the doors closed, she sighed, leaning back in her chair once more. She was dead on her feet. Or, more like, in her seat. With Will's newfound obsession of beating his knowledge into her and her usual workload, she barely had enough time to eat, much less do the research she actually wanted to do.

Nova reached for the front pocket, sitting on her left breast, where her book was safely tucked in. She unlatched the clasp and pulled the thick blue list of spells out of the leather confines. She hadn't thought much of it when she'd received it. Small, thick and kind of unseemly as it was, it had been a general laugh in her village. Now that she thought about it, her grimoire was kind of like herself. The girl traced the pattern in golden veins on top of the soft blue cover. They formed the symbol of the Kingdom in an unsuspecting, almost hidden way, showing where she belonged. With a tired sigh, she opened it.

Nova thumbed through the pages, familiarizing herself with them entirely and committing them to memory. Creation spells, mostly, for her tools. The OR, her most favored chant. She needed more. There were so many blank pages. So much potential. She's seen her father's grimoire once. It had been full of pages written in a language she couldn't read. Her mother's, a pale pink one with silver webbing, was filled with fortune-telling spells. Her blank pages simply showed how little she'd discovered about herself.

With a groan, the girl rose from her chair, picked up her grimoire, and stuffed it back into her breast pocket. She grabbed the pile of charts on the left side of the desk and got ready to make rounds. It was time to check on her patients before she clocked out for the afternoon, lest she pass out from exhaustion.

* * *

Whispers in the dark. Slowly telling her to touch, to cut, to carve. She needed to slash. Place me in their bodies. Take me for your own. Take me and take them. I will take them all for you. I will give you their minds. I will give you their souls. I will give you the world. So many promises. So many pleading promises whispered in the dark.

Don't you want to see their blood? Don't you want to see their faces twisted in agony? Don't you want to make them kneel in front of you with a simple flick of your fingers? Don't you want them to respect you? Respect for the surgeon you are. Respect for the healer. Respect for the great magician. Respect for the surgeon. RESPECT FOR THE SURGEON OF DEATH!

Nova shot up in her bed with a gasp. Her head was pounding. In the very front of her forehead, it was like there was a small drum being beaten by a mischievous imp who grinned with every thump. Her heart was pounding, too.

Respect for the Surgeon of Death.

The words from her nightmare were still fresh in her mind, eerie and haunting her waking thought. She wasn't the Surgeon. She was merely a healer, not yet even out of apprenticeship. But, it seemed that she had been viewed as some kind of a successor of a technique.

She threw her legs over the side of her bed, wincing when her calves ached with the movement. While she'd been allowed to walk without the use of the cane, she still felt pain occasionally. Slowly, Nova rose and walked out of her room and towards the living area. She grabbed a glass of water and mixed in some herbs to help her with the pain. Will had prepared her a concoction of them to use when needed, placed into a well-labeled jar.

When she drained the glass, she headed back upstairs, slowly taking the steps one at a time. Her room was dark, only the soft moonlight coming through a single large window to illuminate the inside. Nova walked to her nightstand and opened the top drawer, taking out the cursed scalpel from her pouch. As soon as her fingers touched it she felt the tendrils of magic wrapping around her skin, beckoning her to pick someone, anyone, and make them kneel to her prowess.

But, Nova wasn't in the midst of battle. She wasn't stressed or in a hurry to help a dying comrade. Her mind was clear.

"No," she told the mana, brushing it off with her own. "I don't want people to kneel in front of me." Still, the mana beckoned her. It was relentless. However, Nova was just as stubborn. "You have a new owner and if you won't listen, I'll make you obey me."

She took a few bandages out of the pouch and grabbed her writing kit, along with a lantern, and headed downstairs. The basement wasn't lit at all, and she needed to light the oil lamp before entering. She found the section she needed fairly easily. There were numerous books stored away which described sealing rituals.

Nova picked out a large title called _Sealing cursed objects for commonfolk_ and thumbed through it. She found a nice and simple rune spell in a few minutes and got to work. On the bandages she wrote the runes, imbued them with her magic, and sealed with blood. Then, she picked up the scalpel and wrapped it in the sealing cloth, following the instructions of clockwise seals and chants as she did.

As the bandage rolled around the blade, she could hear the whispers getting more and more distant, before being silenced completely. The hold of the dark, beckoning mana on her skin was gone. Her headache remained, but she was certain that she wouldn't experience any more nightmares from the scalpel.

"I hope you've learned your lesson with this," Nova told the blade with a sigh, before lowering her head on the table, just for a few minutes.

* * *

**That's all for today folks! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it :)**


	7. When you don’t know, research

**Welcome and enjoy!**

**Big thanks to the new Black Clover discord channel for sparking my interest in the fandom yet again, and, of course, Aesx from AO3 for poking me to update, as well as all the rest of my reviewers who make me write like a maniac :)**

**Side note: If anyone is interested in betaing this story, do reach out to me :D I often miss my own mistakes or struggle with planning ahead, so I would greatly appreciate a second pair of eyes :D**

* * *

**Chapter 7: When you don't know, research**

"Nova," the aloe vera to her left gently poked her, making her giggle.

"Wait, I'll harvest you in a moment," the girl told it, resuming her work on the mint leaves in front of her.

"Nova," the plant wouldn't be ignored, though. It continued prodding her shoulder.

"Okay, okay," the girl gave in, lowering her hands and taking a different set of tools. "If you won't wait, I'll harvest you now."

"Err, what?" The aloe vera moved away slightly, but Nova caught it.

"Don't be sly, let me harvest you," the girl giggled. The aloe vera tried to wriggle away.

"It would appear that you're being harvested," chamomile laughed from behind the wriggling plant. "Just give in, sweetie."

"Nova!" the aloe vera screamed and Nova blinked, looking up. She was met with Will's wide eyes and red ears, instead of the green leaves of aloe vera. "What the heck are you dreaming about?" Nova looked down to see that she'd been halfway through untying his belt, her pen in hand to be used as a harvesting knife.

"Oh," the girl let go of the pants, blushing profusely.

"You were attempting to harvest him," Mary was standing behind Will, cackling madly, her arms around her middle. The healer whose pants had almost been undone quickly rebuttoned them, looking mortified.

"This… never happened," Will murmured, rushing upstairs out of the basement. Nova blinked again, her hands coming up to cover her red face.

"Agreed," she mumbled.

"Oh, but it most certainly did!" Mary laughed loudly, and Nova knew that the healer would never let them live it down.

* * *

"Excuse me, Mary?" Nova had opted for the safer choice of mentor after her morning rounds, still too mortified to approach Will.

"Mmm?" The plum woman didn't stop working on the bandages, rolling them neatly into secure pouches.

"How does one go about accessing more books than the ones available here?" That got Mary's attention. She glanced up, inspecting the fidgeting girl in front of her.

"You've gone through the whole library already?" Nova quickly shook her head.

"It just doesn't have the title I'm looking for."

"Well," Mary's hands resumed the work they'd been doing. "I know that Owen has access to the Royal Library at the Palace of the Wizard King, but I'm not sure how you could gain entry. Perhaps try writing a formal request to Julius?"

"Is there a specific form of letter for that?" Nova asked, nodding.

"No, just write him a note stating the reason, the topic and when you'd like to access the library, I suppose." Nova nodded, then turned to leave with a thanks. "What are you looking to research, though?" Mary asked before the girl was out of the door. Nova stopped short, turning around slowly with a strained smile on her face.

"Ah, well, umm, just looking to improve my knowledge of curses," she fumbled, saying. "I know that the Diamond Kingdom uses some and I wanted to be prepared in case our mage came in with a nasty one. I'm not very experienced with hexes and jinxes."

"You've already read the literature we have in the basement?"

"Yes," the girl nodded.

"Well, try writing a formal request then," Mary told her, watching the girl give a small bow and leave. The older healer stopped rolling bandages for a moment, contemplating the request of their new apprentice. Hexes and jinxes. It was certainly an unusual topic to be interested in. However, it seemed to be for a good cause. Mary shrugged, resuming her work. If the girl's interest got unhealthy, she would talk to Owen about it.

* * *

Nova was surprised to receive a reply from the Wizard King so quickly. In fact, she promptly fell off her chair with a scream when a kind of space magic window or image projection screen appeared next to her, a blue-haired young man speaking from it as if it were completely normal.

"Miss Goldin?" He asked when she managed to gather herself, standing up.

"Ah, yes?!"

"No need to shout, my magic is the same as if I were in the same room, standing at this distance," the mage explained, making her blush. "The Wizard King has reviewed your request to accessing more books on specific curses and summons you to the Palace to further explain your request. Your audience is to be today at two in the afternoon."

"Ah, yes, sir! Thank you, sir," Nova winced, reminding herself not to shout. "I'm terribly sorry for yelling, sir."

"It's not a problem, they all do it in the beginning," the young man smiled, then the screen vanished. Nova let out a sigh of relief, before stopping short, her heart pounding quicker and quicker. She needed to be able to explain why she wanted to access the records about the Surgeon of Death!

* * *

She was lost. It wasn't that she had a poor sense of direction. Not at all. Nova could read a map, make a map and fairly easily recall the path she'd previously taken. However, the palace was simply too large. Humongous. Gargantuan. She had a few attributes at the ready to use.

While Owen's Healing Tower was at the very outskirts, at the edge of the massive property, due to the need for frequent trips into the city, as well as into the nearby forest and mountains, the main building was at the very center. Which meant that Nova first had to navigate her way to the main gates, then talk her way through them and finally, which really wasn't finally at all, somehow get through the maze of gardens, palace buildings and to the working quarters of the Wizard King.

So, how was it that she was staring at an obviously lavish art studio, out in the open, in some sort of a garden, when she had been certain she'd been headed down the right little cobblestone path straight for the main castle? Nova wouldn't be able to tell a soul.

"Well, damn," the girl sighed, head dropping as she positively gave up, allowing her tired body to squat down for a brief break.

"Excuse me?"

"Ah!" Nova looked up, eyes wide. There was a young woman in front of her, hands smeared with paint, a shawl draped across her shoulders despite the summer heat. Her hair was dark, complexion a little too pale to be called fair and her lips showed signs of obvious dehydration. However, her eyes with rather bright, questioning and very alive, in contrast to her frail body. "Forgive me for intruding, My Lady," Nova managed to stop her curious staring and jumped up, remembering her manners. _Never, ever, insult a noble._ Her mother had drilled that one into her. For a split second the girl was torn between a bow and a curtsy, but then realized that her curtsy had always been absolute crap, so she opted for the former. Masculine, but still would work. "I was on my way to an audience with the Wizard King, however I seem to have lost my way."

"Well, you aren't too far off," the lady kindly giggled. "If you take that path, through the back gate," her hand, which wasn't holding the cloth smeared with paint, rose to point with delicate fingers at the iron exit of the small garden. "You will find yourself going down a narrow passage. Take the first right twice, and then the second left, and you will find the main road to the castle."

"I'm in your debt," Nova bowed low, making sure not to look into the lady's eyes. _Do not touch a noble. Do not look at a noble. Do not talk to a noble unless you must._ Easy rules.

"Take care," the lady gave her a soft smile, along with a wave, and Nova took that as permission to take her leave. She swiftly unlatched the gate open, and then again latched it behind herself as she left. She even dared to glance at the small garden, smelling of lilies and fresh grass, where the lady resumed her work on a painting of a meadow. Nova made a mental note to somehow repay the debt she'd just accumulated.

True to the directions she'd received, the path she found herself on was on both sides bordered by tall buildings of the palace. The bricks were made of dark grey stone, similar to the cobblestones and gave her a sense of claustrophobia. She took the first crossroads to the right, and then another right. The winding path continued. Nova ignored the crossroads and continued straight. Finally, she took the last turn in the directions and in less than two hundred meters she walked out of the narrow passages in between the buildings and into the sunny, wide street. Nova shielded her eyes, looked back for a split second, before grinning wide and running up the road towards the castle.

There was a man at the main gates, holding a book of some sort. Nova walked up to him with a little bit of a skip to her step, which only made him give her a harder onceover. She smiled nervously, the reality of where she was going finally setting in. Sure, she'd met the Wizard King informally before. And, she'd oddly been transported into his study once. Yet, never had she gone there herself, on her own two feet.

"What's your purpose in the castle, miss?" the man asked in a gruff tone.

"I'm here for the audience with the Wizard King," Nova replied, opting to remain polite and ignore his hostility. The man looked her up and down again.

"Name?"

"Nova Goldin," she said. He shuffled through the list in his hands.

"The Wizard King's residence is through these doors and then to the left," he told her, not even looking up at her. "There are guards at the door who will direct you further."

"Thank you very much," Nova replied and walked through the tall archway. She found herself in a lavish courtyard which showed ways into different estates of the inner structure of the palace. From what she knew, the royals lived there, each in their own separate castles almost. Nova went left, as directed, and found the two guards standing at the entrance of a tall building. They were laughing, talking about some escapade of a mission, and generally seemed much more hospitable than the man at the main entrance.

"Hello, I'm here to see the Wizard King?" Nova told them when they stopped talking as she approached. She was getting a little tired of the whole procedure to even enter the darn castle.

"Sure thing," the younger one, on the left, said. "Just follow the main stairs up and you'll find Master Julius' study. His doors are literally always open."

"Thank you," Nova proceeded inside. She was glad to finally be out of the hot sun. The way that the building had been made, in stone with large open windows and arches, clearly allowed the air to cool off the inside naturally. A tall staircase showed her the way up to the first floor, where she spotted the open doors of the study in question. Finally, something was familiar. Nova knocked lightly on the frame of the entrance, and then went in. Julius looked up from his desk, his eyes instantly brightening.

"Nova, welcome!" The Wizard King seemed beyond happy to step away from his desk and a massive stack of papers on it. "I read your request to explore the Royal Library for more information on curses. Can you tell me a bit about the purpose of your research? Would you like some tea?" Nova couldn't help but smile at his childish energy and general openness.

"Thank you so much for granting me the chance to explain my reasons, Wizard King," she spoke, following him when he motioned to the two chairs away from his desk. "Some tea would be lovely."

"Here you go," Julius poured the drinks himself, sitting down, and Nova followed suit.

"Well, primarily I'm interested in curses for medicinal purposes," she told him. "I've read everything that is available at the Tower, and it's mostly the basics of curse making, not lifting." She sipped her tea, enjoying the pleasant aroma despite the heat. "The Diamond Kingdom and the Spade Kingdom mages do use quite a bit of curse magic, and in our records it says that we mostly deal with those cases without any solutions. So, I'd like a chance to be able to actually lift a curse, or at least direct the afflicted mages to some form of a remedy." Julius nodded.

"That sounds reasonable," he told her. "Do you have a starting point in mind? There are quite a few books on the subject matter."

"I'd like to start with the work of the Surgeon of Death," Nova told him. Julius looked at her for a moment, long and hard, as if looking for a trace of a lie on her face. However, everything she'd said was true. She _did_ want to learn how to break curses and she was interested in the Surgeon. To her, it was killing two birds with one stone.

"Alright," Julius nodded. "It will take me some time to get the request approved through proper channels, so expect to be able to access the library at the end of the week. Does that sound good for you?"

"It's perfect!" Nova was ecstatic. She'd expected to wait a month, at least. Julius smiled at her.

"Now, tell me, how is your work with Owen going? Is the Tower living up to your expectations?" And he didn't need to ask another question for a long time after. Nova was all too happy to let him know about all the work the healer had put her to and express her gratitude to the man who'd allowed her the chance to prove herself worthy.

* * *

Magna and Luck came together to the Tower that late afternoon. Nova instantly knew that they were there by the ruckus on the first floor. With a sigh, but unable to keep a smile off her face, she gathered her things and got her shoes on, going downstairs. She managed to enter just at the right time, as Luck was starting yet another fight with one of the mages who was healing on a cot, this time from the Silver Eagles.

"Would you stop issuing challenges?" Nova smacked him lightly on the head with her grimoire, successfully getting both Luck's and Magna's attention.

"But I want to fight him!"

"Nova, let's go!" Magna spoke over Luck's pouting response, walking over. "You're free for the afternoon, right?" It was eerie how well they knew her schedule.

"Yes?" She asked uncertainly.

"Good, we'll be taking her now, then," Luck grinned, waving goodbye to a rather stunned Will, who was fuming from his ears at the mess the two had cause with their entrance.

"You'd better have her back by ten!" Will yelled out as they were leaving.

"What is he, your father?" Luck asked her curiously, making Nova giggle.

"More like mother hen," she told him, which made him chuckle in return.

"I heard that!" Will yelled from the doorway with a grin, waving goodbye to the trio.

* * *

In their short, but seemingly built to last, friendship, Magna, Nova and Luck had formed some kind of a weird way of walking when they were together. It had all begun rather innocently. Magna, the gentleman, despite the rather rough exterior, that he was, had offered Nova his elbow one day while she'd still been struggling with her cane. And Luck, never the one to be left out, had pouted how he never got offered elbows, so the girl had mimicked Magna's courtesy. This led to the three making a rather odd group, walking together with their arms intertwined in the street.

"Are we going anywhere special?" Nova asked, feeling rather comfortably nestled between the two mages.

"To start some fights!" Luck immediately perked up from her right.

"No, you bastard!" Magna yelled over Nova's head. The center position also allowed for the girl to do one very important job, which was to make certain that the two friends didn't attempt to kill each other during their outings. "We need brooms, and Nova doesn't have one, either, so we should buy them together."

"And some food, too," the girl supplied, her stomach growling.

"Don't start any food fights, though," Magna gave her a dark look. "Cleaning a whole restaurant once was enough for me."

"Then we could just skip to a real fight?" Luck always had his eye on the prize. "The food fight was fun, but nothing beats a death match!" Nova glanced at him, seeing that mischievous glint in his eye. She was more than familiar with it, and knew what came after the boy got that specific look on his face.

"Obviously you haven't been creative enough with a food fight, Lucky boy," she poked his hand, making his grin turn towards her. But, much to her relief, the manic glint was gone from his face.

"Like stuffing a sandwich down someone's throat?"

"Great method of suffocation."

"Poking an eye out with a fork?"

"No utensils allowed." Luck hummed, presented with the challenge.

"Egg is a great projectile weapon?"

"Why indeed it is."

"This is why I can't take the two of you anywhere," Magna sighed, shaking his head. "Let's go this way, you maniacs." What the fire mage either didn't know or chose to ignore, was the fact that while with Nova the percentage of Luck's attention span short-circuiting and going back to challenge-to-a-fight mode was rather low. Their conversations and debates sometimes got borderline psychotic, but the lightning mage seemed entertained enough with the hypothetical violent situations, instead of making them a reality.

"Oh, that shop looks mighty expensive!" Nova gasped as Magna led them into an alley and up to a fancy red door.

"Cheap brooms don't fly well," Luck shrugged, using his free hand to open the entrance. Nova was the first to go in, her mouth dropping in shock. While the outside had seemed fancy enough, it was nothing compared to the inside. The large space, two stories done in red wood and lined with gold, was filled with various brooms on stands. The stairs took the customers to yet another level of expensive travel gear on display. And, the brooms weren't the only thing available there. Cleaning sets, attachable bags, modification items, even books about flying were on display.

"Woah," Nova turned in a circle, taking in every single item in the store.

"I know, right?" Magna stood next to her, hands on hips. "I was shocked when Luck first took me here, too. Just a month ago I couldn't even afford to touch one of these babies. Look at me now coming to buy one."

"You're not alone there…" Nova murmured. She glanced at the price on one of the flying contraptions and felt her breath stop in her chest. "This is worth almost as much as my parents' house!"

"Really?" Luck was suddenly next to her, bending down to check out the price, as well. "You guys sure are poor!"

"Why you little-"

"Are you certain you're not a noble?" Nova interrupted with a nervous chuckle before Magna could start a fight and make them have to spend more money than intended on making up the damages at the shop.

"Quite certain," Luck shrugged.

"Do you need any help, gentlemen?" The three turned around to see a shopkeeper standing next to them. She was a woman in her late twenties, of brown hair and slim figure. There were large glasses on her eyes and she was wearing some kind of a corset which accentuated her hourglass figure, which Nova was sure was extremely uncomfortable.

"We're looking for some long-lasting, mid-range price brooms, Miss," Magna spoke.

"Our mid-ranges are right this way," the shopkeeper nodded, taking them around the other few customers deeper into the store. "I assure you that all of our brooms have long lives and are particularly adaptable to all attributes. Might I ask what yours are?"

"Lightning," Luck was the first to speak up, a little off-handedly, already looking at the different brooms on display.

"Fire," Magna tapped his grimoire.

"And you, young sir?" The shopkeeper turned to Nova.

"Operation magic, the attribute derived from water and wind as far as I know," the girl replied. She spotted the jaw of the shopkeeper going slack for a mere moment.

"Oh, my apologies, miss," the woman spoke, but Nova interrupted.

"It's alright, happens." With Nova's work attire and her habit of tying her longish hair up in a bun as she worked, especially with that hat she'd tossed on due to the bright sun, she did look like a young lad. Nova wasn't particularly boyish-looking, in all fairness. In fact, she liked dressing up when she felt like it. However, when working at the Tower there was simply no use in being fancy. Patients tended to puke, bleed and toss other bodily fluids on her. Also, when she was doing her chores in the herbal garden she couldn't really watch out for her fancy clothing. Nova still had no idea how Mary managed to keep a clean dress on at all times. The younger girl instead opted for brown, in case of dirt, baggy pants and whichever shirt was clean. It had led to quite a few Knights mistaking her for a boy.

"Well, then," the vendor seemed to gather herself. "If I might direct your attention here," she pointed delicately with both hands towards one of the brooms. "Model 75, one of the newest we have, eighty percent sycamore, ten percent oak and ten percent copper. This is a great choice for lightning mages as it conducts well and offers unparalleled smooth flight." Luck frowned. Nova's eyebrow rose when she saw that smile, the one she'd become so accustomed to seeing on his face, slip off and then appear once more. Somehow, the second time around it looked much more menacing.

"Magna, Nova, do you know anything about brooms?" He asked conversationally.

"Just some basics," the girl replied, Magna already drawn in by a gaudy looking decoration item on display.

"In reality the major component is usually about ten percent less of anything that the company says it is," Luck told her, turning more to her than to the shopkeeper. "And buying a broom that's less than seventy-five percent base wood is simply a waste of money. It won't last long and it will likely break under a constant channel of strong mana."

"Oh, so this one ain't any good?" Nova could literally see the shopkeepers face losing color by the second.

"Not for the price of five thousand yul," Luck shrugged. "We'd be better off going to the shop down the road and seeing their goods. Same quality and much cheaper." Nova heard the lady gulp nervously.

"Aspen, ninety-five percent," she spoke, moving away from the current broom. "Silver alloy five percent." She took a deep breath and then released it. "This is the best conductor for your mana you will find in this shop. If you're not satisfied with it, you are better off going somewhere else." Luck gave the shopkeeper a rather chipper look and satisfied grin.

"I was planning on getting an aspen broom anyway," he told her. "Now that we're all being honest, why don't we actually help these two find good transportation for their mana types?"

"Ah- I- Yes, of course, sir," the shopkeeper seemed to have lost all will to fight, walking over to the next rack of brooms. Nova caught Luck's loose sleeve before he could follow her, pulling him back.

"Thanks, I had no idea we were being cheated," she told him with a slight frown. His gaze dropped down to her fingers on his shirt, then back to her face with a grin.

"No problem, Nova," he told her easily. She was about to give him a rewarding smile, and maybe even a nice kiss on his cheek, when a telltale crack reached her ears, mana flowing in the air. Simultaneously, Luck zapped both her fingers and her behind, making the girl yelp and jump up.

"For Wizard King's sake! Can't you ever just be nice?!" But she already knew the answer to that question, as well.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this one! I loved writing it :)**


	8. The base

**Greetings and welcome :)**

**So, turned out we have a holiday this Wednesday, so I don't have my usual workload… Hence… This chapter is all done and finished :) I hope you guys will enjoy the early update surprise :P**

**Gargantuan thanks to all who have reviewed!**

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**Chapter 8: The base**

Nova walked out of the store and into the sun, pulling her brown hat a little further down in order to shield her eyes better from the warm rays. She liked that cap. It was a puffy, brown newsboy hat which she was able to fully stuff her hair into, keeping it off her neck and face, making it the perfect summer headwear. So, what if it made her look boyish?

"Ah, that was expensive," Magna grumbled, walking up behind her, his broom boxed and under his arm as he placed the change back into his money pouch.

"You're going to thank me later for this purchase," Luck giggled, joining them in the street, holding both his and Nova's brooms, safely wrapped and boxed, under each arm. "A good broom can last you up to six years, if you're not reckless." Nova laughed at that, bumping the boy's shoulder with hers.

"Hey, if that broom lasts six years, I won't just thank you, I'll buy your next broom," she told him lightheartedly.

"Assuming we're both alive by then," Luck shrugged. "I'll take that as a bet."

"Now, that's morbid," Magna frowned, falling into step with the other two. "Who's to say we won't live till we're old enough to retire and become priests or teachers or something?"

"Maybe I could," Luck grinned and Nova instantly knew what was coming. "But, for sure you'll die before me, Magna."

"Why you little-" Magna's grimoire was out, and with his free hand he was halfway into pulling out his trusty bat, ready to go at his rival.

"'Cause you're weak, Magna!" Luck jabbed again, his own grimoire at the ready. Nova barely had the time to snatch their new purchases before the two boys broke out into a fight, spells flying everywhere. She sighed, shaking her head, holding all three parcels.

"At the rate you two are going, I'll be the first one to die, and from annoyance," she mumbled to herself, heading down the street, leaving the squabbling boys behind.

* * *

"Hey, Magna, Luck," Nova felt the blush coming onto her cheeks as she interrupted the boys in their mini-quarrel. They both turned to her, expressions different. Magna had a grin and Luck was raising an eyebrow at her uncertainly. They were sitting in their favored restaurant, the cheap place with big portions, whose owner already knew how peculiar the group of troublemakers was. Nova had chosen to eat with her back against the wall at their table, able to look both at the boys and out the window at the passing people in the street. Many residents of the Capital were walking about there, heading home from work in the dusk, faces tired, or taking their families for a meal somewhere, smiles wide. She enjoyed that pastime.

"What's up, Nova?" Magna asked and Nova jumped in her seat, startled. She'd forgotten that she'd called out to them before in her inspection of a young woman, red-headed, who was taking a whole family of children somewhere.

"I was wondering…" she began, then blushed and shook her head. "No, never mind," the girl stabbed her chicken with her fork rather forcefully, stuffing a big piece into her mouth. Some things, she shouldn't pry about. She should keep her musings to herself.

"Nova," Luck whined. "You can't just start to say something and then not say it," he scolded her in his usual not-sure-if-serious manner. "It just makes me want to know more. And," he grinned with a glint to his eye. "I'll get it out of you one way or another." That promise, she had to admit, was a tad terrifying.

"It's just- err- how should I put it?" Nova mumbled around her food.

"Just come out with it, upfront and personal!" Magna encouraged, nodding.

"How are the Black Bulls?" Nova blurted it out. She just… blurted it out. Then, seeing the boys exchange glances, she backtracked. "I mean, I heard a lot about the Squad from different people and nobody has anything nice to say. But, I mean, I like you two. And, the rest can't be that bad? I mean, you guys serve as Knights to Julius, so it's no doubt you're good, right? I mean, you know, I mea-"

"If you say 'I mean' one more time, I'll zap you," luckily, Luck interrupted her and Nova promptly shut her mouth tight. The boys exchanged one more look and then the blonde lightning fiend shrugged.

"It's a good Squad, objectively," Magna sighed. "We have a Teleportation Magic user, a witch with String Magic, guy who uses Mirror Magic, girl who uses Cotton Magic, a guy with Poison Magic. Even a dude who can transform himself into anything. Our Captain is a beast, too. You should see him fight!"

"Mhm! Capt Yami is the strongest!" Luck piped up with a wide grin. "I can't get him to fight me, but I will one of these days. He's incredible. Gives you all the best kinds of chills, you know?" Nova nodded and then quickly shook her head.

"No, I mean- Ouch!" the telltale zap happened, stinging her arm. "Luck! That was mean," she pouted at him, but there was no remorse on his face, as there never really was for his mischief. "I wanted to ask about the nature of the Squad. Like, you guys don't get many stars or anything?"

"True, true," Magna nodded sagely, making the girl raise an eyebrow at him. "We don't care about that, Nova! The Black Bulls do their own thing."

"Ah, I see," she nodded, looking down at her food again and pushing it around with her fork. Silence stretched out at their table, a vast contrast to the merry interior of the restaurant.

"If we can't answer your question well, why don't you come and see for yourself?" Luck asked then, making Nova drop her fork completely.

"E-eh?" she looked up at him, shocked. "No, no," her hands waved wildly in front of her. "I don't want to intrude- I couldn't possibly-"

"Why not?" Luck asked again.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone would mind," Magna shrugged. "Some of them have been pestering us to bring home this healer we've been hanging out with around. So, there should be no issue."

"So, it's decided then," Luck grinned. "Come over to our place tonight." Somehow, it had been decided without Nova's say so, and she didn't mind one bit, despite her usual need to organize everything her way.

* * *

Nova somehow managed to convince Luck and Magna, but mostly Luck, that dragging her broom all across the country to their base and then promptly back to the Tower was a pointless waste of energy. Will, the mother hen that he was, didn't like it one bit when she arrived, the boys in tow, only to tell him that she would be going over to the Black Bull's base that evening and wasn't certain when she'd be back. In fact, he abandoned his tenuous work of rolling up numerous bandages in favor of following Nova up the stairs, nagging all the way.

"It's the Black Bulls, Nova!" the senior healer exclaimed, as if that explained everything, his hands going up in frustration. He was standing in the doorway to her room, watching her place her broom under her bed.

"Don't worry, Will, Magna and Luck will take care of me, I'm sure," the girl smiled as she stood, patting her knees just in case some dust got on her pants. "I trust them."

"Well, I trust them about as far as I can throw them!" Will entered the room then, grabbing her shoulders. "Nova, you're young, you may not have had this talk, but boys and girls at your age, when they're together stuff happens," Will winced at his own wording, while Nova's eyebrow rose. Her cheeks colored at the sheer ridiculousness of the awkward situation. He was attempting to give her 'the talk' while not giving it, wasn't he? "What I'm saying is – at the age of progressing from a child to an adult specimen a representative of the species will attempt to procreate in order to further the species itself," Will nodded to himself, satisfied with that explanation.

"W-Will," Nova lost it, bending over with loud laughter. "Oh, Wizard King, help me, Will," but it was no use. She couldn't keep a straight face. So, the girl gave in, laughing until she started wheezing. Halfway, the senior healer joined her, the palm of his hand hitting his forehead.

"I'm completely off the mark, aren't I?" he asked when they managed to compose themselves. Nova tilted her head to the side, squinting.

"A little bit off, but not by much," she giggled. "While I'm sure that while progressing from a child to an-"

"Okay, enough," Will stopped her, pulling her out of her room. "You've had the talk, now twice, and you may go."

"Yes, mom," Nova managed to avoid it when he reached over to smack her for her cheekiness.

"Nova," Will called out as they were nearing the last few steps of the stairway. The girl turned, seeing the healer she'd come to love and respect like a member of her family standing a bit above her on the stairs, looking weary. "Please be careful," the tone he used made her listen intently. "While these boys may be your friends and you might trust them and nothing- err- you know is going on, the Black Bulls have a reputation for a reason. They aren't a reliable Squad and they aren't careful when it comes to other people and their needs. Don't get mixed up in something you can't handle."

For a second, the words got to her. Truly, the Squad had a reputation. Some said they were violent. Others that they destroyed things on missions. There were stories of their Captain being a ruthless, bloodthirsty monster on a battlefield. She'd heard about people going missing when they went to their hideout.

"I'll be careful, I promise," Nova said, giving Will a bright smile before turning around and bounding away.

* * *

Magna and Luck took her to a bar first. A bar with lots of inebriated women and men where they located their ride – Finral Roulacase. Despite having briefly met him on two occasions before, Nova was still surprised when he attempted to pick her up, asking her on a date rather casually. But, Magna was quick to pull him away, explaining how they needed a teleport to their base.

"If you stand next to him for too long, you'll get pregnant," the Fire Mage told her in a serious tone when Finral was out of earshot, making Nova frown and smack his arm.

"Don't be mean, Magna," she scolded.

"Truth hurts," Luck laughed, grabbing Nova's hand and taking her through a freshly opened portal. "Thanks, senpai," he told Finral as they vanished from the busy bar and into another part of the country.

"Than-" Nova started, but was too late. "-k you," she finished lamely with a frown, facing a forest and not Finral. "You could've let me finish, you know?" Her reply was a wide grin, as Luck obviously hoped to piss her off enough for a nice fight. That, he wouldn't get. Not just because Nova didn't want to fight him, but also because teleportation magic did what it always did to her, and promptly made her horribly dizzy and nauseous.

"Nova, you okay?" Magna asked, stepping up next to them from thin air.

"As convenient as it is, I hate Teleportation Magic," the girl grumbled, making the two boys laugh at her while she attempted to keep her dinner.

"This way, c'mon," Luck led them up the dirty old road which led through the forest. It got darker and darker out as they walked, the boys bickering about some thing or the next, while Nova tuned them out. Instead, she was listening to the sounds of the animals, the trees, the grass – the nocturnal part of nature was coming alive. She unconsciously smiled, recalling her time back home, when she would walk from the mines back to her house after sunset. The same sounds would welcome her home and the same sounds would be her lullaby as she fell asleep at night.

"Here we are," Magna suddenly said, getting her full attention. "The base." The boys stopped, allowing Nova a moment to take it in. For starters, it was huge. Not as big as the castle or the Tower, but huge, for a base. It was a house of three floors, at least, and numerous windows in an old architecture style, demanding respect. The tall tower-like structures which adorned the roof were fascinating to her, making her look up, all the way to the top, with a gasp of awe. Despite the old, ancient feeling about it, the Black Bull's base emanated a kind of welcoming energy which, along with the soft yellow light coming from the windows, made Nova feel oddly at home.

"I think she's broken, Magna," Luck said, poking the girl next to him. But, Nova couldn't get enough of the house.

"It's so…" she began, but got interrupted.

"Old?" Luck helpfully added.

"Big?" Magna joined in.

"Homey?"

"Nah, I think she wants to say gloomy?"

"Awesome!" Nova interrupted them both, grabbing them each by the arm. "Can we go in?" she asked, hopefully.

"Unless you're planning to camp outside, hell yeah, we're going in," Magna laughed, leading them towards the large doors of the base.

* * *

It turned out that the majority of the Squad were out or on missions that evening. Still, Nova got to meet some of the members briefly. In her awe of the interior of the place, she almost sat on a sleeping woman on the sofa in the middle of the common area. Blushing profusely, she apologized to her, only then to notice that the said lady was half-naked and deeply inebriated. Still, she introduced herself as Vanessa, the resident witch and undoubtedly one of the most beautiful women Nova had ever met. The conversation, before Luck intervened, went something along the lines of.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am!"

"Who are you?" Spoken rather sluggishly, lots of owlish blinking involved.

"Nova Goldin, ma'am!"

"Aaah, you're the healer girlfriend of our two young recruits, aren't you?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Vanessa, nice to meet you," wide smile and an eager look. "So, is it true that Magna is-"

"Nova, come see my room!" and Luck appeared, almost out of thin, air, pulling her away from the smashed lady and her intriguing questions. "This is Grey, by the way."

"It's very nice to meet you, I'm Nova," the girl bowed, but was getting pulled away as she did. The odd, huge man in the corner simply blew out smoke in her wake, without a word. "I think he's mad. Luck, you made me be rude," Nova complained as she was dragged up the stairs.

"I don't think Grey really cares, one way or the other," Magna jogged to catch up with them, Luck leading the way at a brisk pace.

"My room is this way today," Luck didn't allow Nova to answer, or sightsee, but pulled her along. However, his words got her thinking on the topic.

"What do you mean today?" she asked with a frown.

"Oh, this place changes where things are," Magna explained. "Like, the bathroom will move or a wall will be where it wasn't. That kinda stuff."

"Is it cursed?" Nova asked them, excited.

"Who knows," the Lightning Mage shut her down, stopping, finally. She appreciated the break, because, between the run up the stairs and the pulling down multiple corridors, she was not only winded, but her arm hurt from where he kept pulling her. "Here we are!" Cheerily, Luck opened the door, entering. "Nice, isn't it? But a bit small."

"Small?" Nova raised an eyebrow as she turned in a circle, looking around. Luck's room was bigger than hers at the Tower, and that space was larger than hers at home. There was a bed, a wardrobe, a writing desk, everything pretty standard. Nova was a bit surprised to see a window seat, but figured that Luck didn't get much use of it. Though, judging by the large stack of books by it, he did. "Woah! I'm jealous!"

"My room's next, then?" Magna reached for her as Luck put away his broom, but Nova evaded.

"How can you drag me away before I get a chance to see what Luck's been reading?" the girl giggled, bounding over to the window seat and getting comfortable. She picked up the book on top of the pile, opening it.

"Fine, fine," Magna huffed. "I'll go grab some drinks and snacks. Knowing Charmy-paisen we're stocked up." He left the two alone, Nova squinting at the book.

"Damn, Luck, I barely understand this," she looked up at the boy's cheery smile, surprised and in awe of what he was reading in his free time. "Is this some kind of a syphon?"

"Mhm," the boy sat in front of her, his legs coming up to fold under his body comfortably. "It's a theory which is pretty modern considering the possibility of treating mana like water, almost."

"It gets complicated, doesn't it?"

"Not really," Luck reached over, flipping the pages and settling on a drawing of a magic circle with instructions. "What it does is essentially explain different sources of mana and the way mana could possibly be transferred, along with its reactions and interactions with the surrounding forces."

"Luck… that's complicated," Nova laughed, closing the book and putting it away. "But, I kind of get it. I use a similar thing when it comes to healing."

"How so?" the look on his face wasn't something Nova had seen before. He resembled a child who was ready to mop up knowledge like a sponge and fit it into his own mold.

"Essentially, I spur on the mana of the patient to do the work, or lend my own," she told him, almost being able to see the gears turning in his brain.

"Not quite like this, still," he told her, slumping back into the wall. "This could potentially allow you to draw power from nature and fuel your own mana reserve with it. Wouldn't that be amazing?"

"Sounds crazy powerful," Nova mused.

"Sounds perfect," Luck chuckled, looking out the window.

"You always liked learning stuff like this?" she asked him, getting a curious gaze. "I mean, reading and stuff and, you know, improving through modern theories?"

"I suppose," Nova couldn't help but look at him. She realized that there was more to Luck, right then and there. She'd known that there was more than just fighting and challenges and arguments and intentional zapping. But this was even more than the more she'd thought there was. "I've always liked learning and I've always been good at putting the theoretical into practice. People assume that I'm not that smart, because of the way I am, but I know a lot."

"I know," Nova said and their eyes locked. "I always knew you were bright."

"Not just off my rocker?"

"No," she shook her head. "I always knew there was more." For a second, silence stretched out between them and Nova was spellbound. She couldn't look away from those electric eyes. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. There was nothing but Luck in the room with her. Just Luck.

"Nov-"

"Drinks and snacks are here, ye' maggots!" Magna burst through the door, doing his best impression of a pirate, carrying way more than he should've been on numerous trays.

"Oh, let me help," Nova hopped to her feet, feeling her face heating up and rushed to grab the precious cargo the boy was carrying.

* * *

"Here, you can use this," Magna extended a loose shirt to Nova, then went back to digging through his belongings. It was getting late, and Finral was nowhere in sight, so the three of them had decided that it would simply easiest for Nova to sleep over and go back to the Tower in the morning. While it hadn't been the original plan, at the prospect of having to walk back, or, Wizard King forbid, have Luck or Magna fly her over, the girl had given in.

"Thanks, Magna," she said, yawning wide. At that point, Nova had become completely comfortable on their floor of the hideout. Magna and Luck's rooms were facing each other, which made it easy for the latter to annoy the former at almost any given point in time. Since the rest of the Black Bulls didn't usually wander about at night, Nova had quickly made herself at home, already familiar with almost everything in both spaces. She'd been laying on Luck's bed for the majority of the night, as they played various games and chatted, finding it extremely comfortable.

"No proble- Aha!" Magna rose triumphantly, a pair of shorts in his hand. "That's what I was looking for. These should fit you okay," he told her, handing them over. "Just go to the bathroom and change and we'll set up a bed for you."

"Or we can share?" Luck suggested from the doorway, tilting his head to the side with his usual grin.

"Listen here, now, Luck, Nova's a lady," Magna got in his face, immediately starting an argument. "There's plenty of rooms free and we can find her a-"

"Ah, no, Magna, I don't want to trouble you," the girl piped up, realizing that preparing a bed for her wouldn't just mean in one of their rooms, but actually seeking out a free one and getting it ready. "I can share for the night, it's not a problem."

"See? Not a problem," Luck repeated, knowing that it would irritate the other boy. "You can bunk with me, Nova!"

"I don't think sharing is bunking," the girl murmured as she was dragged by her arm yet again. "Let me just change, okay? I can't sleep in my working pants," she managed to wriggle out of Luck's grasp and slip away towards the bathroom. Fortunately, he allowed her to go, instead choosing to stay behind and poke Magna even more. As Nova closed the bathroom door with a shake of her head and a smile at their behavior, she didn't doubt that she'd find them in a full-blown battle once she was done.

Regardless, she did her business quickly and then stripped. For a moment, she debated leaving her bra on, but shook her head and slipped it off, too. She would be damned if she needed to sleep in that damnable thing for a single night.

Magna's clothes smelled of gunpowder and something fruity, like apples, if she was correct. They were comfortable and surprisingly not that much larger than what she usually wore. The shirt hung a bit awkwardly on her frame, slipping off of one shoulder, but the shorts stayed on, especially when she cinched them at the waist. Finally satisfied with the fact that the borrowed clothes would stay on, even after sleep, Nova nodded to her reflection in the mirror and left the bathroom.

"Boys, time for bed, break it up," she told the two warring Mages, who didn't listen, as they never really did. So, with a shrug, Nova opted for Luck's room and entered it. She neatly folded her clothes and took off her shoes and socks, all the while ignoring Magna's screams of anger and Luck's giggling in the background. "Guys," Nova came to the doorway, calling out one more time to the two Mages. "I'm gonna go to sleep, you two have fun." She turned around, hand going to her bun to release her hair. With a sigh of relief, she felt the tension in her scalp vanish and that's when the thud behind her sounded and she whirled around. "Oh, for Wizard King's sake, don't hurt each other!"

"I'm good!" Luck's hand shot up from the floor, before he rose into a sitting position, shaking his head and finally completely hopping up to his feet. "Was worth it," he chuckled, making Nova raise an eyebrow.

"Crazy battle maniac," Magna grumbled, putting his grimoire away. "I'm off to bed, too. Don't wake me up in the morning, Luck. Night, Nova."

"Night!"

"No problem, I'll have you up at six!" With one more grumble, Magna's door slammed shut. Luck and Nova were left standing in the hallway for a moment in silence before he looked at her.

"Your hair is really long," he commented, staring at her with his usual calculating intensity. But, recalling the odd feeling from before, Nova was painfully aware of the returning heat on her cheeks.

"A-ah, thanks," she looked away from him, suddenly regretting that she'd chosen his room, for whatever reason she'd done so.

"Let's go sleep," and Luck grabbed her hand, yet again, pulling her along.

* * *

**That's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed :)**


	9. Unburden the soul

**Welcome and enjoy!**

**Huge thanks to everyone who reviewed! The input helps me get my writing groove on :D**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Unburden the soul**

It was an ungodly hour, she was certain of that. Yet, Nova didn't dare flip over or move or get up or do anything. It wasn't that she wasn't tired. Not at all. It wasn't that she hadn't shared a bed before. Kenny, from the village, had had her sleep over at his house so many times that she couldn't even recall all of them. Much like her own place, they didn't have multiple bedrooms and she's shared with both him and his siblings so many times. But, there was something different this time.

Luck's bed was nice and fluffy, much more comfortable than her own. He had really soft pillows, too, just how she liked them. Nova had expected to be out for the count as soon as her tired body hit the mattress. So, why was she feeling like she was trapped between the wall and Luck's sleeping form? Finally, after minutes or hours, she honestly didn't know, she chanced turning around, facing him. Luck was turned the other way around, his back to her, not sleeping on his pillow but hugging it instead. Somehow, she found that adorable. The Cheery Berserker she'd heard so much about was a pillow-hugger.

Nova propped her head up and leaned over, taking a look at the boy's expression. He wasn't grinning in his sleep, but there was a soft rise to his lips. Along with his blonde hair and soft features he looked years younger. Nova plopped back down on the pillow yawned. What was wrong with her? She wouldn't be able to wake up the next day, for sure. She would be dead on her feet because she was anxious to sleep next to a friend.

But, she knew what she needed to do. Find the cause and eliminate it. It was the same as with any medical procedure. There was no healing without finding the cause. So, she reached inside and thought about what was bothering her the most. Not the bed, not the silence, not the dark, but the body next to her. So, why was she nervous?

Sure, Luck was cute. She'd thought that back when she'd first seen him, at the Knights' Exam. But, did she like him in a different way? She hadn't even considered that, so it was out of the way. Still, she thought back to that moment in the window seat, where she couldn't look away from him. Perhaps, she was beginning to consider him as a potential romantic interest. Still, he didn't have to think the same way, so there was no need to be nervous. And, regardless of her considerations, it wasn't like she could change the situation at the moment.

Nova nodded to herself and turned once more, this time facing the wall. Regardless of what would or could happen in the future, she couldn't do anything about it right now. So, her brain went back to Will's lessons and started recalling all the salves he'd been having her make. She listed the ingredients to herself and slowly felt sleep taking over her through yawns.

"Can't sleep?" Luck's voice cracked through the dark and broke the spell she'd finally managed to cast on herself and Nova's eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," she replied with a tired sigh, her voice breaking from the lack of use in the last few hours.

"I'm a light sleeper," he told her and shuffled to get more comfortable. "The first time you turned I was awake." Nova wanted to slam her head against the wall. "What's wrong?"

"I think it's just weird being in a different bed," she lied. She outright lied to him.

"It's not me?" at that, she froze. Did he know? Luck must've felt her body go stiff since he sighed. "If you want, you can switch to Magna's room. I know I make people uncomfortable."

"N-ah-what?" she was properly confused now. Nova turned around, seeing Luck on his back, staring at the ceiling. "What do you mean?" His eyes didn't move from a spot on the ceiling.

"I make people uncomfortable," he told her. "With the smiling and the fighting, they think I'm always out to get someone."

"Aren't you, though?" Nova giggled, hoping to lighten the mood. That was when Luck's eyes met hers briefly.

"No," he replied, and then turned away from her, swinging his legs from under the covers. "I'll go sleep in Magna's room, so you don't need to worry." Nova realized what had happened in a span of a second and her arms shot out, grabbing Luck's hand.

"No, no, you misunderstood, Luck," she said. "It's not that you make me uncomfortable in that sense. It's just, we're at a certain age and Will gave me a stupid 'be safe' talk and I'm overthinking everything. It's nothing you did. I don't think you're weird or creepy or out to get me or anything. I trust you, okay?" Luck turned, looking at her from above.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay," he smiled then and Nova felt the heaviness in her heart vanish instantly. "Say," Luck grinned even wider. "Since we're awake… You wanna prank Magna?" he giggled in such a childish way that Nova couldn't resist going along with his mischievous ways.

"Oooh, what did you have in mind?"

Needless to say, an hour later, they were both in bed, completely relaxed, after many outbursts of manic giggling at their devilishness. It turned out that the cure for everything was making Magna suffer.

* * *

Despite the late night, Nova woke up early and cautiously rose from the bed. She had to maneuver over a sleeping Luck, who seemed to be completely out cold. He had somehow switched from hugging his pillow to hugging her during the night, which made disentangling his limbs from around her and then awkwardly hopping over him in a straddle all the more troublesome. She picked up his pillow from the floor and placed it where she had been, the fiend almost immediately grabbing it in a tight hug. Smiling, Nova covered him with the blanket at headed for the bathroom with a yawn.

Magna's clothes had proven as very comfortable sleepwear and she considered swiping them. Her own old shirt was getting rather ragged and she needed some new clothes, especially for bed. When she was done with as much as her morning routine as she could do in a foreign bathroom, Nova headed back to Luck's room, making a straight line for the window seat.

For a moment, she looked out at the scenery. The forest was really exquisite in the morning hours, birds flying above treetops and the soft early rays of the sun caressing each leaf, making them almost sparkle. She undid the latch to the window and cracked it, sighing at the scent of grass and the crispness of the air. Getting a tad cold, Nova walked over to Luck's closet and found one of his capes, wrapping it around herself. She liked the soft blue color. It wasn't anything she'd normally buy for herself, as she would instantly get it dirty, but she enjoyed it all the same. And, the material! It had to be the best quality wool she'd felt under her fingertips. She was almost certain that Luck was loaded, one way or the other.

Nice and warm, Nova sat back in the spot at the window, picking up one of the many books next to it. She started thumbing through it, reading interesting parts and skipping the overly complex explanations of the stuff she couldn't get in a million years. Then, at a specific page, Nova's eyes widened and she began reading frantically. Finally, she stopped, leaving the book open on the window seat as she jumped up and bounded over to the bed.

"Luck!" she shook the boy awake, jumping onto the bed next to him. "Luck! Wake up!"

"Mhhrgh?" he turned, blinking a few times, before opening his eyes fully. "Wha-?"

"Is it true that you can make mana quartz from the quartz found at the Gold Tips?" Nova was on a high. If she could make mana quartz then all of her issues would be solved. Mana quartz was a rare material only available to the richest of the rich. It was used in manufacturing the best mana conducting objects. However, it wasn't favored because it eroded too quickly, which was exactly what she was looking for. A way to conduct mana and remove that object from the mixture almost instantly.

"Quartz?" Luck blinked up at her, yawning. "Why do you need quartz?"

"For healing stuff, but, the point, is, can you make it from the quartz at the Gold Tips or not?" Luck pushed against her, but Nova held onto him, demanding her answer. She didn't want to have to read a whole tome that she knew he had in order to find out a small piece of information.

"You woke me up because of quartz?" Luck flipped to the other side, pulling Nova with him, and he hugged her tightly when she struggled to get up and shake him again.

"Yes, I need to know-"

"And I need more sleep before-"

"Aaaaaaayiiiiiiiiiiiii!" the scream made them both freeze in their struggle-hug. Then, they exchanged a look, a grin making its way on both of their faces. Magna was, apparently, awake. "Luck! You bastard!" The second yell had Luck chuckling through his nose, doing his best to keep it quiet.

"Shh, shh," Nova told him, attempting to be quiet herself through the uncontrollable giggling.

"We're asleep," Luck told her, struggling to appear dead to the world. Nova closed her eyes as well, snuggling closer to him and doing her best to school her face neutral.

"Luck!" the door to the room burst open, Magna's voice reaching a thundering level. "You little- what the hell are you two doing?! Huh?!" Nova was unable to keep the grin off her face any longer and she burst into laughter, opening her eyes just in time to spot a livid Magna jump towards them. What ensued was chaos which couldn't be called a pillow fight at all, because Magna was covered in feathers and considered a pillow himself.

* * *

"Here, have some more eggs," Vanessa pushed the plate across the table, getting them closer to Nova. "Oh, and these sausages are great!" She also pointed to another platter which held piping hot meat. "Have as much as you'd like," the witch smiled at her.

"Thank you so much," Nova gave a small bow with her head only, mouth full of food. Breakfast at the Black Bull's base looked like a messy family meal. Despite only a few of them being at home, the table in the dining room was full of food, plates almost stacked on top of one another. This was due to the resident gourmet, Charmy, coming back from a mission that very morning. She was using her magic to cook in a manner Nova had never seen before. She didn't doubt that if the Mage hadn't chosen to become a Knight, she could've easily earned a fortune by opening a restaurant.

"How are you liking the Capital, miss Nova?" Finral was also back, this time fairly sober and chatty. "I could show you all the best spots, if you ever want to go sightsee-"

"Stop flirting with her, Finral-paisen," Magna interrupted, grumbling.

"Now, now, Magna, I was only being nic-"

"You were flirting," Luck interrupted this time, smirking. "Wanna have a fight to decide if you were or weren't?"

"Okay, I was," Finral quickly conceded with a nervous laugh. "Well, miss Nova is a lovely young lady, I'm sure she had many suitors."

"Oh, not at all, Mr. Finral," Nova felt her cheeks color as she waved her hands in front of herself. "I'm afraid my work keeps me too busy for any sort of love life."

"Ah, that's a pity!" Despite his tendency to ask her out every chance he got, Nova quite liked Finral. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and his Teleportation Magic, though not for her, was rather exquisite. When she'd learned from Magna that he was a noble, she had been thoroughly shocked. After all, Finral seemed too kind to be one. He'd offered to open a portal for her almost immediately when he'd realized that she'd been stranded the previous night and apologized profusely for it.

"What do you do, Nova?" Charmy asked from her seat next to Nova, taking a break in positively inhaling her food.

"I'm a healer at the Tower," the girl replied with a grin. "I work with Owen, Mary, Will and Elizabeth. Most days, we only have the regulars, but recently with all the missions at the border with the Diamond Kingdom we've been very busy."

"Oooh! Healing is quite the job!" Vanessa commented. "How do you like it here? Did you also come this year?" The witch was downright the most beautiful person Nova had ever met. And, even more than that, she was incredibly polite and nice. Nova had immediately had big sister vibes from her and she absolutely couldn't wait to talk more to the woman. After all, Vanessa had already given her a taste of the local gossip, which the girl was a sucker for.

"Ah, yeah, I tried passing the Knights' Exam, but failed," she laughed. "But, I ended up meeting the Wizard King accidentally and he invited me to the Tower and the rest is history." Nova didn't notice that her statement had caused a pause in all the eating, except Charmy's.

"Nova! You didn't tell me you knew the Wizard King!" Magna exclaimed, pointing an accusing fork at her.

"I-I didn't realize it was a big deal?" she backtracked, but the damage was already done. Suddenly, everyone was asking her questions about Julius. The merry breakfast was halted momentarily when the Captain joined them, the whole Squad fawning over him as he sat down. He didn't even speak to Nova, overlooking her completely until Vanessa pointed her out.

"Oh, you're not one of mine," he noted in a bored way, before turning to Finral. "The bathroom."

"Yessir!" And the Teleportation Mage opened a portal without a hitch, the tall man vanishing through it.

"Is this normal?" Nova bent over to ask Magna, who was sitting across from her and received a nod and a grin. Laughing at a joke Finral tossed out as their breakfast continued, her belly comfortably full of delicious food, Nova wondered why in the heck the Bulls had such poor reputation. If anyone asked her, she would tell them that this was the best Squad!

* * *

Nova got back to the Tower fairly late that morning, despite Finral opening a portal for her which delivered her to the very door. After breakfast Vanessa had insisted on having a 'girl chat' which Charmy had supplied with coffee and biscuits. Nova had learned that Finral was hopeless with women, despite his frequent dates, that Yami was actually very sweet, as the witch put it, that Magna had never had a girlfriend before and that Gauche, whom she hadn't met, loved his sister a bit too much. She'd also found out that there were quite a few nice clothing stores in town which she should visit and that there was a great café really close to the Tower, where she promised to meet Vanessa sometime for a drink. After that, though, Magna and Luck had kidnapped her, which she didn't mind too much, and attempted to cajole her into staying longer with a board game. That, she'd had to decline, no matter how much she wanted to play. So, with a promise to play Knights and Dungeons with them another time, Nova sought out Finral.

Only after arriving at the Tower did she realize that she'd completely forgotten to annoy Luck about the mana quartz from his book. She filed that into something to be done at a later time and entered through the tall doors.

Instantly, her day got more hectic. Apparently, another group of Knights had arrived during the night, giving Will a hard time as he had been alone at the Tower. She was put to work immediately, going from one person to the next, using her magic until she was exhausted. Then, it was time to brew the usual remedies and make rounds. And, finally, she got a bit of a break around lunchtime.

"How was the Black Bull's base?" Will asked, plopping down next to her in a tired heap. He reached over for the soup and foregoing his spoon, sipped it straight from the bowl.

"It was really nice," Nova told him. "Everyone was really good to me. I really don't understand why they have such poor reputation." She picked a nice piece of meat and cut it into small cubes before pushing the plate to the tired healer.

"Lifesaver," he commented, digging in. "They destroy stuff, simple."

"Like, on missions?"

"Yeah," Will nodded. "Last I heard was they nuked an old church during a mission. I think it was their Captain who did it." He bit into his piece of bread, swallowing before he continued. "Also, they fail a lot of missions. They did the dungeon that popped up a few months back and ended up losing the loot to the Diamond Kingdom. Sucky, if you ask me. Something about their Mage running away from battle."

"That… doesn't sound like them, to be honest," Nova mused, thinking about who would be likely to run off from a fight. "But, they have Magna and Luck now, so I think they will get better."

"If you say so," Will chuckled, but didn't comment on that further. "Oh, right, Marx contacted me this morning. Something about your request being approved and that you can come anytime?"

"Oooh! That helps a ton, thanks!" Nova perked up instantly, the tiredness gone from her body at the prospect of exploring the Royal Library. "I put in a request to enter the Royal Library last week," she told her mentor. "Master Julius said that he would be able to get me in in about a week and he came through."

"Anything particular you're researching?" Will asked, pushing away the empty plate and leaning back in his chair.

"Curses, mostly," Nova told him. "I'm curious about lifting them."

"Ah, true, we're lacking on that front," Will nodded. "Well, there's no rest. Let's make rounds." And he stood, putting his dishes into the sink and the two left to check on their patients.

* * *

Nova carefully packed a basket before heading out to the main castle. She placed every tonic she knew she wanted to bring with her, along with instructions, and placed a linen cloth above, tucking in the sides. Then, she headed out. Her first stop was the secluded art studio she'd found the last time she'd been on the property, after getting through the main gates. There, she placed the basket with a note pinned on top for the lady who had helped her last time. Luckily, the woman wasn't there, so she could simply leave the 'thank you' present in stealth.

As Nova headed through the gate at the back, following the instructions she still remembered, she recalled everything she'd seen potentially troubling with the lady and how she had prepared a tonic for the ailments. To boost her immune system, to give her strength, to ease her nausea, to help with her allergies, she had prepared them all herself, with a little bit of Will's help, from the simple clues on the lady's form.

Finally, after thirty minutes or so of walking, Nova reached the main area, where all the nobles lived. She was directed towards the Wizard King's residence, where she met his assistant, Marx, for the first time in person. He proved to be a rather pleasant young man, a little older than her, holding the letter which would approve her entrance to the Royal Library at almost any time.

"If you simply show that seal at the gates, they will let you come through," the man explained, leading Nova down a series of corridors, deeper and deeper into the connected castle. She did her best to remember her way. Left at the funny suit with a feather on top of its head. Left again at the picture with the naked lady with flying babies around her. The painting of a battle between the Demon and the first Wizard King was a right turn. The odd-looking vase with the red flowers was another left turn. "Here we are," Marx said, stopping in front of tall doors with the Clover Kingdom symbol on them, done in gold and green. "Open the doors," he told the two guards in a stern voice, showing them the letter Nova had received.

"Yes, sir!" the two bowed and then pulled the heavy door open, making Nova gasp.

The library was a mixture of brown, gold, yellow, white, red and green. It looked to her like some kind of a candy store she had been allowed in, given a limitless budget. For starters, the library was a cylindrical structure, extending both upwards and downwards from where they stood. Countless wooden bookshelves and rafters lined against the walls and made up tiny corridors along the sides of the room. There were at least ten floors, from what she could see from the entrance balcony. Rows and rows of ladders, stairs and railings done in dark oak, decorated with gold, streamed around, as if woven by magic. The spines of book glistened in different colors, mostly earthy tones, beckoning her towards them. The red and green carpets lined on the lower floors led a path through different worlds of information Nova couldn't even _fathom_ , much less attempt to read through. Finally, she glanced up and saw the source of all the sunrays. There was a skylight on the ceiling, a humongous dome of webbed golden windows, along with different mirrors positioned on each floor to direct the light from one end of the library to the next. She could spot countless little figures of people moving left and right, reading, adjusting the mirrors, cleaning, tidying up and arranging the space.

"Miss Nova?" Marx spoke, bringing her back to reality. She looked towards him to see a small smile on his face at her sheer adoration. "It's a lot to take in, I know. However, I'll let you admire it later. For now, we're short on time so I'll just show you to the section you need."

"Thank you so much, sir," Nova gasped, carefully stepping on the green and red plush carpet, embroidered in gold, feeling like a fairytale princess of some sort. She felt that her work boots were unworthy of stepping on such material. The bulky brown lace-ups with a thick bottom stood out terribly against it. "Truly, sir, thank you."

"I'll make sure to tell him you were awestruck and thanking him multiple times," Marx laughed, leading Nova down the stairs on the side. "The section on curses is to the right and at the very bottom, so it's a bit of a way to get there."

Nova couldn't help but marvel at the titles she managed to glimpse as they passed floor after floor. She bowed politely to each and every person in the library, from the common readers like her to the staff dressed in white and green robes, embroidered in gold. Marx had to stop a few times, when she saw a name or a topic she particularly liked, and wait for her to catch up.

"If you wish to read any books other than your allowed section, be sure to check with the local caretakers," he instructed. "Typically, they won't mind as long as you are careful with the relics and treat them with respect. After all, you only get screened once to enter this place." Nova mutely nodded. "When you are done with the books, it's best to leave them on the table where you were reading. The librarians prefer checking their condition and then returning them to their proper spots. You're free to take as many notes as you'd like, but the books stay inside this space. The air and temperature have been adjusted through magic to stop them from deteriorating." Marx finally descended the last set of stairs, the two having gone back and forth on one side of the cylinder, going further and further down, to the very bottom. "Finally, keep in mind that there are some books which require gloves while reading them. They will usually be stored in glass cases and you will need to request permission and supervision to read them from the librarians. A day's notice should be fine for almost any tome. Any questions?" Finally, they stopped.

"A-ah-I-I-When can I start?" Nova managed to get through her stutter, looking around still. She wished that her head could go three-sixty degrees right then and there.

"You're free to come and go as you please, as I mentioned," Marx said. "Here is your letter of approval. There- "he pointed to the second rafter on the right, "-are the books on curses. Have fun reading and don't stay too late."

"Thank you so much, sir!" Nova gasped out, immediately getting shushed by a passing librarian, as she bowed a perfect ninety-degree angle, her ponytail slamming her in the face from the force of the bow. But, not even that nasty swish of hair would wipe the wide grin off her face. After all, she had quite possibly entered paradise.

* * *

**That's all for now folks! I'm looking forward to your input :D**


	10. Dead ends and backwater towns

**I'm sorry for the horribly slow update. I wish you lovelies a great, uneventful, prosperous and magical 2021!**

**Drop me a review if you've got time, they keep me writing fast :P**

**Enjoy the read!**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Dead ends and backwater towns**

_The Surgeon of Death wielded five scalpels in a deadly fashion. One turned his enemies into his allies, using the most despicable curse ever made, a puppeteer technique which robbed people of their mind and body. Another he used on himself to boost his own abilities. It is said that when he cut himself with it, he could double or triple his mana reserve, making him into a true God of Death. The third was meant for his patients, enabling him to cut through any bone and muscle as if it were common butter. The fourth scalpel allowed him to neutralize any poison through usage of plants and crystals, making it the ultimate healing tool at the time. The final scalpel is said to hold the key between reality and the dream world, enabling the surgeon to erase himself from history and become the vague figure he is to this day. Altogether, these five scalpels are the set of tools which allow the user to overcome the limitations of Life and Death, giving them the ultimate power over dark magic. Should any of these relics be located, they are to be sealed immediately and turned over to the authorities, as they are said to be cursed with the very soul of the Surgeon himself, driving any aspiring owner mad through usage. They are dark objects which will serve but one master._

Nova sighed, leaning back in the chair. Every book about the Surgeon said the same thing over and over again. The five scalpels and their properties. The warnings of oncoming madness for the user. To seal and turn over to the authorities. There was nothing about how the Surgeon used them for healing or how he wielded them. Not one piece of useful information. Except, in one of the books, she'd found out the name of the village where the man was supposedly born. The obscure place was called Tihan and it was a tiny settlement in the mountains, out in the boonies.

Rubbing her eyes for the nth time, Nova closed the book after skimming through the rest of the information provided. Nothing except evil deeds by the Surgeon which were unspeakable. Then, the tome went on to another dark figure of history, describing their techniques in greater detail. She realized that she would get nothing about the Surgeon from the Royal Library, as disappointing as that was.

"Are you done with these, miss?" one of the librarians asked her, bowing to her as he rolled his cart over to her desk.

"Ah, yes," Nova quickly stood, packing the books she had gone through. "These are free to go," she said, helping the man load numerous tomes onto the cart. She'd found the people at the library rather accommodating in the past two days. The librarians were polite and helpful, when asked for advice, and the other readers mostly kept to themselves, but weren't opposed to chatting after they were done researching. "Say, I was wondering," she spoke up, making the young librarian look up from the books and focus on her. "Are there any books you would suggest on mana quartz?"

"Of course," the young man nodded. He had a golden mark on his forehead, telling that he had sworn the oath to serve at the Royal Library all his life. He could take no wife, own no lands and father no children, instead devoting his very being to the preservation of information for the future generations. "If you go to the third floor, head to the section on magical stones, which is on the opposite from this side of the Library and find the rafter on magical gems. There are a few books which describe the locations of possible materials to make the quartz and some which describe the process itself."

"Thank you so much," Nova collected her bag and notebook, before stopping short. "Could I leave these books here and read them when I'm done upstairs? I still want to check a few things and need a break from this topic, to be honest." She laughed lightly, which gained her a smile from the young librarian.

"It's not a problem," he told her. "I will place a sign here and nobody will bother your work in progress."

"Thank you so much," Nova bowed to the man and headed up, stretching as she went. She was sore from sitting in the same position for a long time and needed to clear her head a bit with a different topic.

* * *

"Come in," the familiar voice of the best healer at the Tower called out as soon as Nova knocked on his door. She opened it and entered, only to find Owen sitting at his desk, bent over charts, a warm cup of tea at his side. "Nova," he said when he looked up, peering at her over his glasses. "Is everything alright?"

"Ah, yes," she said, walking over when he motioned to the other chair at the desk. She sat down. "I was hoping to go and gather some materials for healing at the Gold Tips and wanted to see how that worked." Owen placed down his pen, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, you need to submit a request for the mission and get it approved by the Wizard King, for starters," he explained. "In case the location is dangerous or near the border, you may need to take a bodyguard with you, so one or more Magic Knights will be assigned the duty."

"I see," Nova nodded to herself. "Is there a specific request form which I should fill?"

"Oh, yes, let me see if I have one lying around," Owen stood, going over to his cabinet and rifling through the files there. "Here we go," he walked back to the table, extending a form to her. "This one is filled, but you can get the general idea of what you're supposed to write from it."

"Can I request a specific Squad to take the bodyguard job?" Nova asked, looking over the form still. Owen nodded.

"If there's a particular reason, of course," Owen raised a curious eyebrow at her, watching her carefully as the girl frown at the form, reading about the details of a mission, providing times and dates. "I've heard that you've gotten close with some of the Black Bulls? Do you intend to ask for them on the mission?" Nova's head snapped up and she bit her lip for a second, before answering.

"Ah, yes," Nova nodded. "Particularly I was hoping for Luck Voltia. He's knowledgeable about the subject of my current research and could prove useful when it comes to harvesting." Owen nodded, smiling.

"Good, good, write that then," he leaned forward, taking her hand. "I'm glad that you're looking past the rumors about Yami's Squad and considering them for missions. They're a bunch of misfits, but their hearts are in the right place."

"You're the first one to say that to me!" Nova excitedly grabbed the man's hand, grinning wide. "They're rough around the edges, but they're a good Squad, aren't they?" Owen laughed, nodding.

"They still seem to be missing a piece, but I'm sure that they will find a way to shine soon enough," he agreed. Then, the older man sighed, rubbing the spot where his glasses lay on his nose. "Okay now, you run along and write your request. I've still got to get through quite a bit of paperwork. Really, you young ones have all the fun these days. It seems like all I'm doing is paperwork." Nova laughed at that.

"If you'd like to come with me to the Gold Tips, I wouldn't be opposed?" Owen waved her off with a laugh and Nova stood, bowing. "Thank you very much, sir. For everything." The man waved her off again, blushing obviously. They both knew that her 'thank you' was about much more than just about the information on writing requests.

* * *

It took two days for her request to be approved, this time without an invitation to the Wizard King's study, and Nova was ecstatic when she received a written permit to recruit a Black Bull of her choice and go to the Gold Tips. She got the permission to be away for a week, at the most, and to 'act in her best judgment' during the harvesting quest. Nova couldn't keep a smile off her face as she packed a large backpack full of tools.

She needed a sieve for the creeks, some cracking and cleaning materials, the jars for preservation, the bags, in case she found some extra resources, picks of different sizes, digging chisels and so on. As she was attempting to stuff her working gloves into the backpack, the door of her room opened, making her look over her shoulder from her crouched position.

"Geez, how are you going to carry that with you?" Will asked, coming in like he owned the place.

"Well, I'm going by broom, so I figure as long as I can load everything I should be fine," Nova grinned. "Though, these gloves are giving me trouble. Don't know where to stuff them…" She returned to attempting to put the gloves somewhere into the bag.

"I was hoping that you could give me a hand, since you're going to the Gold Tips," Will sat down on her bed, fiddling with a piece of paper. "There are a few ingredients I usually hunt for there and I made a list…"

"Sure," Nova grinned, extending a hand. Will placed a piece of paper in it, folded twice, and the girl stuffed it into her backpack. "I'll look at it on the way and grab as much as I can carry, okay?"

"Anything that doesn't inconvenience you too much would be great," he grinned at her just as her door burst open yet again.

"Hey, Nova, while you're at the Gold Tips could you- Oh," Mary stopped short when she saw the situation in the room. "I see I'm late to the party," the woman laughed, shaking a piece of paper.

"Of course, I'll hunt down the ingredients you need," Nova giggled, extending her hand yet again. "Are you two sure you don't want to come with me?"

"Nah,"

"No, no," immediately they shook their heads. "We're already going to be a healer short," Mary added. "You take care out there, kiddo," she patted Nova's head, messing up her hair and turned to leave. "Stay good!" The door closed behind her. Will took a breath and then stood.

"What she said," he huffed. "Let me get that for you," and he heaved the heavy backpack onto his shoulder with a grunt. "I'll take it downstairs for you."

"Thanks," Nova smiled as he left with a wave. For a moment, she sat on her bedroom floor, still, thinking. Just a few months ago, she was in her village being disregarded as a wonky healer who didn't have any practical knowledge, no real friends and no real customers. And then, she'd met Julius. Now, not only did she have Magna and Luck, amazing friends, but she also had Will and Mary, her fellow healers who counted on her, and Owen, her wonderful mentor. Nova couldn't keep the grin off her face as she grabbed her broom and her usual hat, heading out.

Before she could leave the floor, though, the door to Elizabeth's room opened and the woman poked her head out.

"Nova," she called out, making the girl stop. Elizabeth looked tired. She had bags under her eyes and her working apron was stained in some kind of an oil that Nova couldn't identify. She hadn't seen much of her mentor in the past few weeks, ever since she'd proven that she could do their usual daily home visits on her own.

"Is everything alright?" Nova decided to ask, looking the exhausted woman up and down. Elizabeth fidgeted, her eyes flitting back and forth. Then, she cleared her throat.

"I heard you were going to the Gold Tips?" finally, the woman mumbled.

"Ah, yes, I've received permission to do some ingredient hunting," Nova raised an eyebrow, thinking for a moment before it clicked. "Do you need me to look for something for you?"

"If it's not too much trouble?" Elizabeth instantly brightened. "I've been struggling with the metal on this new delivery system I'm working on. I can't get the ratio right for the proper softness of the materials. I know that there is a good vein of silver up on the Gold Tips, but I just can't leave the work I've got right now…"

"Not a problem," Nova grinned. "Do you have a list and a map?"

"I could make it if you give me five minutes?" Elizabeth said, opening the door to her room wider. Nova nodded and followed her inside. It was the first time she'd been in the space. And, true to what Will had told her, it was majorly a workroom. Half-done projects everywhere, blueprints pinned to the wall, an elaborate setup on the desk with all the gadgets an inventor could ever need. Nova could barely spot the bed in all the mess. She carefully stepped around some contraption with a ton of wires on the floor, waiting as Elizabeth grabbed a pen and paper, quickly scribbling down instructions. "This should do it," she said. "If you can't find it, it's not a problem either, I could go in three weeks' time. But, if you can, it would be great."

"I'll do my best," Nova said, accepting the paper. As she was heading out the door, she stopped, looking back at the woman who was positively dead on her feet. "Elizabeth?"

"Hmm?"

"Please take care of your health," the girl said in a soft voice, hoping that she wouldn't offend. "You look like you're about to drop." At that, Elizabeth grinned, nodding.

"You take care, too." And Nova rushed out.

* * *

Flying by broom was something Nova had learned very young. She could still remember the first time her father had taken her for a ride around the village on his old model. The wind in her hair, the feeling of weightlessness as the wooden contraption took off and landed and the stinging in her eyes as she squinted against the wind. Those were some of her favorite memories. Though, it was one thing for someone to take you on a ride and for you to fly on your own. She'd practiced for years before she could safely take off and land. She had been infamous in the village for hopping off trees in her attempt to get into the air and the local sheriff had brought her home, banged and bruised, from one too many unsafe landings numerous times.

That was why when she had finally managed to take off on her new broom, Nova had been reluctant to land at the Bull's base. But, she knew that she had to, and the pull on her magic from the ride had been a bit too strong for her liking. To add to that, the weight of her backpack was quite the burden. When she finally got off the broom, she sighed in relief.

"Alright," she told herself, heaving her backpack onto her shoulder and picking up the broom into her hand, brush side up, as was usual. The house was loud when she entered, Magna and Luck having some kind of a showdown in the common area. She spotted Vanessa snoozing on the couch, drunk, and Finral and Charmy at the bar, talking to a man she didn't recognize. But, the Spatial Magic user noticed her immediately.

"Miss Nova!" he exclaimed, prancing over. "Coming back so soon? Couldn't get enough of us? Or have you changed your mind about that sightseeing tou-"

"Not at all, Mr. Finral," she interrupted him, knowing that it was better to cut him off immediately rather than wait. Magna had told her how the man could go on and on about his fantasy date. "I'm just fetching a bodyguard for a mission."

"Oh? You want one of us?" Finral sounded quite astounded by the fact, eyebrows rising.

"Yes," Nova grinned, patting his arm. "I like your Squad." The man looked positively on the verge of tears.

"W-who would you like?" he managed to say through a sniffle.

"I was hoping to take Luck, if he's not busy?" Finral's eyebrows almost vanished into his bangs.

"Luck? Well, he's not particularly busy, as you can see, but surely someone else might be more suited for-"

"Not at all," Nova smiled. "I'm sure he can do the job."

"Okay, then," Finral nodded. "Luck! You have a mission!" There was a zap of lightning almost instantly, the boy in question appearing next to them.

"A fighting mission?" Luck's face was illuminated by clear joy of the possibilities. "Nova, you're coming, too?"

"Actually, you're coming with me," the girl giggled. "If you're fine being my bodyguard for a week or so?"

"Sounds good!" Luck nodded. "Let me get my stuff." And with another zap of lightning, he was gone.

"Luck, you little fiend, you're not leaving until you pay for eating my pudding!" Magna yelled, running past Nova and Finral to get to the stairs where Luck had vanished. "Hey, Nova," he greeted briefly, running in place, and then moved on. "Wait, you bastard!" Nova shook her head, laughing.

"Join us for coffee?" Finral politely offered and she nodded, happy to set her backpack down, at least for a while.

* * *

Nova switched her seating on the broom for the nth time, attempting to get a tad more comfortable. She'd decided, after the first two hours of flying, that she wasn't a fan of long journeys on the preferred method of transportation for Mages. While it surely was a great way to reach something close by, it wasn't the best idea when going to a distant location. Her backside was numb, tingling whenever she switched how she was seated. Glancing over at Luck, she saw that he was standing on his broom again, easily maneuvering through the air. He'd also been going from one position to the other, mostly switching between sitting and standing.

"Have you ever been to the Gold Tips?" Nova yelled out over the wind, making the boy turn to face her, tilt his head and then shrug.

"I don't remember," he replied.

"How can you not remember?" she laughed. "I've heard that it's a magnificent location. Surely, you'd remember if you'd been there before?" Luck switched the way he was standing, his broom coming closer to hers so that they wouldn't have to yell to each other.

"I mostly remember my opponents," he explained. "If you can tell me who I'd been fighting there… I could recall, I suppose?"

"Tough one," she laughed. "I've never been," Nova said. "I've always wanted to go there, though. Apparently, the scenery is amazing and there are a lot of indigenous species in the untouched ecosystem. Also, the environment is rich with harvestable plants and metals."

"Mmmm," Luck hummed, shrugging again. "Not my area of expertise, but I understand." He looked over to her bag. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"The ingredients for mana quartz," Nova grinned up at him.

"Oh, from the book!" Luck hopped down, sitting on his broom again. "Then we should find a good river, or a stream, even better."

"That's why I asked for you," Nova giggled. "I knew you would be informed on the topic." Luck chuckled.

"I'm not an expert, but I do know some basic things," he admitted. "Are you looking to use quartz to make them? You could also go the old fashioned way, but I suppose with the new method of using actual gems would be easier, no?" Nova grinned, nodding.

"I figured that would be the easiest way."

"But, you know that they will end up fading out? After you use them?" Luck said, tilting his head to the side. "That's what made mana quartz so unpopular, after all."

"Yeah, but that will serve perfectly for my purpose," Nova told him, her index finger coming up as she lectured. "I've been struggling to make healing salves as Will teaches me to, because I'm really bad at infusing healing magic into the mixture. However, if I have the mana quartz inside the paste, that will make it easier for me to draw out the feeble healing magic I've got, and then the quartz will dissolve, which will, in turn, make the paste safe for usage. At least, in theory."

"Aaah, that sounds like a good solution," Luck nodded, shrugging. Then, he froze, looking up. Nova's eyes also went up, staring at the clear skies above them. Sun, a few clouds, nothing much. What was he looking at? "Nova, we should find some shelter," Luck told her, hopping up to his feet on the broom and looking around. "There's a storm coming."

"Eh?!" Nova looked up, squinting. "There's only a few clouds, though?"

"Trust me, I've got a bit of a sense for these things," Luck laughed. "I have yet to be wrong about a thunderstorm on the way."

"Ah, eh, I see, okay," she nodded, also looking around the ground. "There's no shelter in sight. How much time do you think we have?"

"Maybe twenty minutes?"

"Eeeeeh?!"

* * *

"I'm soaked," Nova whined, taking off her hat and wringing it out. Onto the wooden floor of the small backwater inn, a stream of water fell, joining the puddle that had formed under the girl.

"Me too," Luck laughed, attempting to shake his head of the rain water. The thunderstorm had formed in less than ten minutes and it was raining in another five, soaking them completely before they could manage to find shelter. Nova wrung out her hair next and then walked over to the fire, shivering.

"It's not even rain season, for Wizard King's sake…" she grumbled, putting her hands up, hoping to warm them a little bit.

"Oh, dearies, you got caught in the storm good," an elderly woman, taller than both Nova and Luck and quite stout, joined them by the fire, bringing two bowls. "Here, eat this and warm yourselves up a bit," she handed them each a bowl, which Nova noticed was full of deliciously smelling broth. "I'm afraid to say that the weather here in the mountains works a bit different. They say it's due to the magic surrounding the very tops of the Gold Tips. Something about an old Dungeon being there. We get thunderstorms from time to time, just randomly in the summer."

"I'd hate to see winter up here," Nova said, mouth full of potatoes.

"Ah, mostly snow and some blizzards, nothing too bad. It's great for the kids, they love the snow." The kind innkeeper said, smiling down at her. "Let me bring you some towels, dry your hair."

"Ah, about the water-"

"Don't you worry, dearie, it will dry in a bit and my nephew can help mop up. All in a day's work, honey," the innkeeper smiled, walking away.

"We got lucky, didn't we?" Luck grinned, joining Nova at the bench in front of the fire. They'd managed to find a tiny village with only one inn in the middle of the mountain forest in the flashing lightning. They'd had vacancies, which was great, and the kind innkeeper had offered them rooms and meals, which were much appreciated by both, as night had quickly fallen during their flight.

"If you call this lucky, yeah, we did," Nova couldn't help but laugh, despite the horrible situation. She couldn't ignore Luck's optimism. "I mean, we did find an inn?"

"With a nice innkeeper, too?"

"Got some warm soup?"

"Also towels!"

"There's a fire, too."

"Lucky indeed," Luck, sighed, stretching out. His tunic was dripping where he sat. Nova put her bowl down on the other side of the bench, scooting over to him.

"Your tunic is soaking," she frowned, gathering the material and wringing it out. Water dripped down behind Luck, the now semi-dry fabric in crinkles all over.

"I'll change in a bit," he shrugged. "The lady said there's a bath upstairs, so we could take a warm one and have our clothes dry in the meantime." Nova's head helpfully conjured up an image of them both in the same bath. It was a very nice addition to her already freezing brain which made her cheeks heat up.

"Y-yeah, sounds good," she managed, clearing her throat in the middle of the sentence. When she looked up at him, though, just to see if he'd noticed her blushing like a schoolgirl, she noticed that his head was turned away, eyes focused on the other patrons of the inn, sitting at the bar. Nova craned her neck, looking over his shoulder to see what had occupied his attention. There were three men and a girl, who was bar-tending, there. One of the men seemed to be talking to the girl. "Luck?" Nova called out, but he didn't reply. Then, she spotted the man talking to the girl lean forward, across the bar top and reach for her while she was turned away. The edge of Luck's tunic which she'd been loosely holding, forgetting all about wringing it out, ripped from her hands. "Eh?" Nova looked around in confusion, but the boy who had been next to her just seconds ago had vanished. She glanced up to the bar and there he was, surely enough, lightning crackling around his body as he grabbed the man and slammed him down onto the bar top.

* * *

**That's all for now!**


End file.
